LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO 


J 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arcliive 

in  2007  witli  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littpV/www.arcliive.org/details/footprintsofcreaOOmilliala 


GOULD    AND   LINCOLN, 

59  WASHINGTON  STREET,  BOSTON, 

Would  call  particular  attention  to  the  following  valuable  woriss  described 
in  their  Catalogue  of  Publications,  viz. : 

Hugh.   Miller's    Works. 

Bayne's  Works.       "Walker's  Works.       Miall's  Works.       Bungener's   Woxk. 

Annnal  of  Scientific;  Discovery.      Knight's  Knowledge  is  Power. 

Krummaoher's  Suffering  Saviour, 

Banvard's  American  Histories.     The  Aimwell   Stories. 

JTewoomb's  Works.     Tweedie's  Works.     Chambers's  Works.     Harris*  Works. 

Kitto's   Cyelopoedii   of  Biblical   Literature. 

Mrs.  Knignfs   Life  of  Montgomery.         Kitto's   History  of  Palestra 

Wheewell's  Work.     Wayland's  Works.     Agassiz's  Works. 


William's  Works.     Guyot's  Works. 

Thompson's  Better  Land.     Kimball's  Heaven.    Valuable  Works  on  Missions. 

Haven's  Mental  Philosophy.     Buchanan's  Modern  Atheism. 

Cruden's  Condensed  Concordance.     Eadie's  Analytical  Concordance* 

Ths  Psalmist :   a  Collection    of  Hymns. 

Valuable  School  Books.     W^orks  for  Sabbath  Schools. 

Memoir  of  Amos   Lawrence. 

Poetical  Works  of  Milton,  Cowper,  Scott.       Elegant  Miniature  Volumes. 

Arvine's   Cyelopasdia  of  Anecdotes. 

B.ipley'3   Notes   on  G-ospels,  Acts,  and  Komans. 

SpragTie's  European  Celebrities.     Marsh's  Camel  and  the  Halllg. 

F.oget's  Thesaurus  of  English  Words. 

Eackett's  Notes  on  Acts.      M'Whorter's  Yahveh  Christ. 

Siebold  and  Stannius's  Comparative  Anatomy.    Marco's  Geological  Map,  IT.  S. 

lieligious  and  Miscellaneous  W^orks. 

Works  in  the  various  Department*  "*"  Literature,  Science  and  Art. 


laxh  b2  IflJitt  fjarris»  g.g,, 


PUBLISHED    BY 


GOULD     AND     LINCOLN, 

59   WASHINGTON   STBEET 


THE    QKEAT    TEACHERi  or.  Characteristics  of  our  Lord's  Ministry.     TVith  an  Intro- 
ductory Essay  by  Hsmait  HoMpaBST,  D.  D.   12mo,  cloth.   Price  85  cents. 


II. 

THE    GREAT    COMMISSION;   or,  the  Christian  Church  constituted  and  charged  to 

convey  the  Gospel  to  the  world.    A  Prize  Essay.    With  an  Introductory  Essay  by 

W1U.IAK  R.  WiLLiAVS,  D.  D.    12mo,  cloth.    Price  tl.00. 


III. 

THE   PRE-ADAMITE   EARTH;  Contributions  to  Theolo^cal  Science.   Kew  and  Re- 
vised edition.     12mo,  cloth.     Price  (1.00. 


IV. 

MAN    PRIMEVAL;   or,  the  Constitution  and  Primitive  Condition  of  the  Human  Being. 
Withafinelyengnred  Portrait  of  the  Author.    L2mo,  cloth,    Price  $1.25. 


PATRIARCHY;  or,  The  Family,  its  Constitution  and  Probation.     Contributions  to  Theo- 
logical Science.     I2mo,  cloth.    Price  (1.25. 

CI?"  The  immense  sale  of  Dr.  Harrises  Works,  both,  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  attest 
their  intrituie  worth  and  great  popularity.  (11) 


WORKS  BY  HUGH  MILLER, 

PUBLISHED    BT 

GOULD     AND     LINCOLN, 

59  WASHINGTON  STREET,  BOSTON. 


I. 

THE   OLD   RED   SANDSTONE; 

OR,    NEW    WALKS    IN   AN   OLD    FIELD. 

Illustrated  with  Plates  and  Geological  Sections.    12mo,  cloth.    Price  Sl.OO. 
"It  is  withal  one  of  the  most  beautiful  specimens  of  English  composition  to  be  found,  convey- 
ing infonnation  on  a  most  diHieult  and  profound  science,  in  a  stj  le  at  once  novel,  pleasing  and 
elegant"  — Db.  Speague,  Albany  Shectaiou. 

II. 

:my  first  impressions  of  England  and  its  people. 

With  a  fine  Engraving  of  the  Author.    12mo,  cloth.    Price  $1.00. 

A  thrillingly  interesting  and  instructive  book  of  travels  ;  presenting  the  most  perfectly  life- 
like views  of  England  and  its  People  to  be  found  in  tlie  language. 

III. 

THE  FOOTPRINTS   OF  THE    CREATOR; 

OR,     THE     ASTEROLEPIS     OF     STROM  NESS. 

With  numerous  Illustrations.    With  a  Jlemoir  of  the  Author,  by  Louis  Agassiz. 
12mo,  cloth.    Price  $1.00. 

Dr.  Buckland  said  he  would  give  his  left  uasd  to  possess  sucu  powees  of  descbip- 
Tiojf  as  this  max. 

IV. 

MY   SCHOOLS   AND   SCHOOLMASTERS; 

OR,     THE     STORY     OF     MY     EDUCATION. 

AX   AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

With  a  full  length  Portrait  of  the  Author.     12mo,  cloth.    Price  $1.25. 

This  is  8  personal  narrative  of  a  deeply  interesting  and  instructive  character,  concerning  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  the  age.  It  should  be  read  and  studied  by  every  young  mau  in 
the  land. 


TESTIMONY   OF   THE  ROCKS; 

OK,   GEOLOGY  IN  ITS   BEARINGS  ON  THE  TWO  THEOLOGIES, 
NATUKAL  AND   REVEALED. 

"Thou  Shalt  be  in  league  with  the  stones  of  the  field."— Job. 

With  numerous  elegant  Illustrations.    One  volume,  royal  12mo.    Price  S1.25. 

This  is  the  largest  and  most  comprehensive  geological  work  of  this  distinguished  author.  It 
exhibits  the  profound  learning,  the  felicitous  style,  and  the  scientific  perception,  which  charac- 
terize his  former  works,  while  it  embraces  the  latest  results  of  geological  discovery.  But  the 
great  charm  of  the  book  lies  in  those  passages  of  glowing  eloquence,  in  which,  having  spread  out 
his  facts,  the  author  proceeds  to  make  deductions  from  them  of  the  most  striking  and  exciting 
character. 


C7"  The  above  works  may  be  had  in  sets  of  unifo  -m  size  and  style  of  binding. 


IMPOUTANT  NEW  WORKS. 

THE  TESTIMONY  OF  THE  ROCKS  :  or.  Geology  in  its  Bearings  on 
the  two  Theologies,  Natural  and  Revealed.  By  Hugh  Miller.  "Thou  slialt  be 
in  league  with  the  stones  of  the  Held."  —  Job.  "With  numerous  elegant  illustruliou.-^. 
12mo,  cloth,  !«1  25. 

The  completion  of  this  important  work  employed  the  last  hours  of  the  lamented  author,  and  may 
be  considered  his  greatest  and  in  tiict  liis  life  work. 

MACAULAY  ON  SCOTLAND.  A  Critique.  By  Huoh  Miller, 
Author  of  "  Footprints  of  the  Creator,'-'  &c.    l(5m&  flexible  cloth,  25c. 

When  we  read  Macaulay's  last  volumes,  ttc  said  that  they  wanted  nothing  but  the  fiction  to  make 
an  epic  poem;  and  now  it  seems  that  they  are  not  wanting  even  in  that.  —  Pubitan  Kecokdkr. 

He  meets  the  historian  at  the  fountain  head,  tracks  him  through  the  old  pamphlets  and  newspapers 
on  which  he  relied,aud  demonstrates  that  his  own  authorities  are  against  him.— Boston  Tean  sckipt. 

THE   GREYSON   LETTERS.     Selections  from  the  Correspondence  of 

B.  E.  H.  Qreyson,  Esq.    Edited  by  IIenet  Rooeks,  Author  of  "The  Eclipse  of  Faith." 

12mo,  cloth,  $1.25. 

"  Mr.  Greyson  and  Mr.  Rogers  arc  one  and  the  same  person.  The  whole  work  is  from  his  pen  ; 
and  every  letter  is  radiant  with  the  genius  of  the  author  of  the  'Eclipse  of  Faith.'"  It  discusses  a 
wide  range  of  subjects  in  the  most  attractive  manner.  It  abounds  in  tlie  keenest  wit  and  humor, 
satire  and  logic.  It  fairly  entitles  Mr.  Kogers  to  rank  with  Sydney  Smith  and  Charles  Lamb  as  a 
wit  and  humorist,  and  with  Bishop  Butler  as  a  reasoner. 

If  Mr.  Rogers  lives  to  accomplish  our  expectations,  we  feel  little  doubt  that  his  name  will  share, 
with  those  of  Butler  and  Pascal,  in  the  gratitude  and  veneration  of  posterity.  — London  Quartkhi.t. 

Full  of  acute  observation,  of  subtle  analysis,  of  accurate  logic,  fine  description,  apt  quotation,  pithy 
remark,  and  amusing  anecdote.  ...  A  book,  not  for  one  hour,  but  for  all  hours;  not  for  one  mood, 
but  for  every  mood,  to  think  over,  to  dream  over,  to  laugh  over.  — Boston  Journal. 

A  truly  good  book,  containing  wise,  true  and  original  reflections,  and  written  in  an  attractive  style. 

—  Hon.  Geo.  S.  Hillabd,  LL.  D.,  in  Boston  Courier. 

Mr.  Rogers  has  few  equals  as  a  critic,  moral  philosopher,  and  defender  of  truth.  .  .  .  This  volume 
is  full  of  entertainment,  and  full  of  food  for  thought,  to  feed  on.  — Philadelphia  Pbesbytkbian. 

The  Letters  are  intellectual  gems,  radiant  with  beauty  and  the  lights  of  genius,  happily  inter- 
mingling the  grave  and  thegay.  — CuKiSTiAN  Observeb. 

ESSAYS  IN  BIOGRAPHY  AND  CRITICISM.  By  Peter  Bayne, 
M.  A.,  Author  of  "  The  Christian  Life,  Social  and  Individual."  Arranged  in  two  Series, 
OK  Paris.    12mo,  cloth,  each,  $1.25. 

This  work  is  prepared  by  tlie  author  exclusively  for  his  American  publishers.    It  includes  eigh* 
teen  articles,  viz  : 
First  Series  :—  Thomas  De  Quincy.  —  Tennyson  niul  liis  Teachers.  —  Jfrs.  Barrett  Browning. 

—  Recent  .\spicts  of  British  Art.  —  John  Raskin.  —  Hugh  .Miller.  —  The  Modern  Novel  :  Dickens, Itc 

—  Ellis,  Acton,  and  Currer  Bell.  —  Charles  Kingslcy. 

Second  Series:  — S.  T.  Coleridge.  —  T.  B.  Macaulay.  —  Alison. —  Wellington. —  Napoleon. — 
Plato.  -  Characteristics  of  Christian  Civilization.  —  Education  in  tlie  Nineteenth  Century.  —  The 
Pulpit  and  the  Press. 

LIPE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JAISIES  ISIONTGOl^IERY.  Abridged 
from  the  recent  London,  .=even  volume  edition.  liy  Mrs.  II.  C.  Knight,  Author 
of  '■  Lady  Huntington  and  her  Friends,"  &c.  With  a  fine  likeness  and  an  elegant 
illustrated  title  page  on  steel.    12mo,  cloth,  $1.25. 

This  is  an  original  biography  prepared  from  the  abundant,  but  ill-digested  materlils  con- 
tained in  the  seven  octavo  volumes  of  the  London  edition.  The  great  bulk  of  that  work,  together 
With  the  heavy  style  of  its  literary  e^ic'v.iion,  must  noccssarily  prevent  its  republication  in  this 
country.  At  the  same  time,  the  Chri'jt'aM  put/':  in  America  will  expect  some  memoir  of  a  poet 
whose  hymns  and  sacred  melodies  ha-  e  auca  t'cl  '''light  of  every  household.  This  work,  it  is  confi- 
dently hoped,  will  fully  satisfy  the  piUJi  L'  rtri.  M.  is  prepared  by  one  who  has  already  won  distin- 
guished laurels  in  this  department  of  httTi.'  P  f\  (x) 


WORKS  RECENTLY  PUBLISHED  AND  IN  PRESS. 


THE   LIFE   AND    POSTHUMOUS    WOKKS    OF 

THE     KEV.    JOHN     HARRIS,    D.  D. 

lAte  Principal  of  New  College,  London,  and  formerly  Tlieological  Tutor  of  Clieshunt  College. 

Edited  by  the  Bev.  PHILIP    SMITH,    B.  i... 
Foriuerly  a  colleague  of  Dr.  Harris  in  Chesliunt  and  New  Colleges. 


This  series  of  the  Remains  of  their  late  lamented  author  will  contain  the 
SERMONS  AND  CHARGES  delivered  by  him  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  during  the  height 

of  his  reputation  as  a  preacher. 
A  TREATISE  ON   NATURAL  AND   REVEALED   RELIGION,  •xhibiting,  m  one  view,  the  latest 
results  of  his  Theological  Studies  ;  and  a  Fragment,  complete  in  itself,  of  the  work  which  was  in- 
terrupted by  his  death,  on 
THE   DIVINE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NATIONS.    Besides  other  Minor  Writings  and  Fragments. 

The  works  will  not  extend  beyond  four  elegant  royal  12mo  volumes.  The  Mkmoir  will  be  in  one 
volume,  uniform  with  the  works.  The  first  volume,  consisting  of  Sermons,  has  just  been  published, 
and  the  second  volume  will  shortly  be  issued. 

The  Sermons  of  Dr.  Harris  will  probably  prove  to  be  among  his  most  popular  productions.  They 
arc  quite  unlike  other  writings  of  the  same  class.  Many  of  them  are  master-pieces  oi  originality  and 
eloquence.  Some  of  them  will  compare  favorably  with  the  most  celebrated  pieces  of  pulpit  oratory. 
The  pulpit  was  Dr.  Harris's  favorite  theatre  of  action,  and  it  is  well  known  that  he  bestowed  im- 
mense labor  in  preparation  for  it.  In  consequence,  he  acquired  the  highest  reputation  as  a  preacher, 
and  his  services  were  in  constant  request  on  important  occasions.  Thus  it  happened  that  most  of 
the  Sermons  here  presented  were  preached  twenty  times  or  more.  But  impressive  as  thiy  must  liavo 
been  when  uttered  by  the  living  voice,  they  arc  scarcely  less  so  when  read  from  the  printed  page. 
They  stir  the  soul  like  strains  of  martial  music. 

THE  POOR  BOY  AND  MERCHANT  PRINCE;  or,  Elements  of 
Success  drawn  from  the  Life  and  Character  of  the  late  Amos  Law- 
rence. A  Book  for  Youtli.  By  William  M.  Thayer,  author  of ''The  Morning 
Star,"  "  Life  at  the  Fireside,"  etc.  etc.    16mo,  cloth.    75  cents. 

The  publishers  feel  that  the  character  of  this  little  work  warrants  them  in  styling  it  one  of  the 
BEST  BOOKS  KOK  BOYS  THAT  HAS  EVER  BEEN  ISSUED.  Its  basis  is  the  life  and  character  of  Amos 
I.AWRENCE,  and  its  design  is  to  do  for  boys  what  the  "DiARir  and  Correspondence"  of  Lawrence 
is  fitted  to  do  for  men,  young  and  old.  Lawrence  is  the  model  man  to  whom  the  eye  of  the  boy  is 
directed  in  every  chapter,  and  his  sayings  and  doings,  so  far  as  they  have  a  bearing  on  the  subject  in 
hand,  are  produced  and  commented  upon.  But  Lawrence  is  not  the  only  character  presented ; 
numerous  anecdotes  of  other  distinguished  persons  are  introduced,  all  going  to  show  that  Lawrence, 
and  such  men,  possessed  certain  elements  of  character  essential  to  success,  in  common.  The  work 
is  thus  rendered  extremely  entertaining,  while  it  is  all  the  wliile  highly  instructive. 

HAR^SONY  QUESTIONS  on  the  Four  Gospels,  for  the  use  of  Sab- 
bath Schools.    By  Rev.  S.  B.  Swain,  D.  D.    Vol.  I.    18mo.    12^  cts. 

This  is  the  first  of  a  new  series  of  Question  Books,  which  will  be  completed  in  three  volumes. 
The  plan  differs  from  all  others  in  this,  that  it  is  based  upon  a  HAEMONy  of  the  gospels.  Instead  of 
taking  one  of  the  gospels,  —  that  of  Mathew,  for  instance,  —  and  going  through  with  it,  the  author 
takes  from  all  of  the  gospels  those  parts  relating  to  the  same  event,  and  brings  them  together  in  the 
same  Lesson.  In  this  way  the  pupil  gets  a  view  of  events  in  the  order  of  time,  and  also  a  view, 
at  one  glance,  of  all  the  connected  circumstances.  The  questions  are  so  framed  as  to  avoid  two  ex- 
tremes ;  that  of  multiplying  difficulties  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  of  making  everythine  easy  on  the 
other,  but  few  of  the  questions  can  be  answered  by  yes  or  NO.  A  peachcal  beaiing  is  given  to 
the  subjef.r.  of  every  lesson. 

THE  EPISTLE  OF  PAUL  TO  THE  ROMANS.  With  Notes,  chiefly 
Explanatory.  Designed  for  Teachers  in  Sabbath  Schools  and  Bible  Classes,  and 
as  an  Aid  to  Family  Instruction.  By  Henry  J.  Kifley,  Pro£  in  Kewton  Theo- 
logical Inst.  12mo,  cloth,  67  cts.  just  published,  ( j  j ) 


NEW    AND    VALUABLE    WORKS. 


MENTAL   PHILOSOPHY; 

IxcLtJDixG  THE  Intellect,  the  Sensibilities,  and  the  Will.  By  Joseph 
Haven,  Professor  of  Intellectual  and  Moral  Philosophy,  Amherst 
College.   Royal  12mo,  cloth,  g-l.oO. 

The  need  of  a  new  text-book  on  Mental  Philosophy  has  long  been  felt  and  acknowledged  by  etni- 
Benl  teachers  in  this  department.  AVliile  many  of  the  books  in  use  are  admitted  to  possess  gr?at 
merits  in  some  respects,  none  has  been  found  altogether  satisfactory  as  a  te.\t-book.  Tlic  author 
of  this  work,  having  learned  by  his  own  experience  as  a  teacher  of  tlie  science  in  one  of  our  mDst 
flourisliing  colleges  what  was  most  to  be  desired,  has  here  undertaken  to  supply  the  want.  How  far 
he  has  succeeded,  those  occupying  similar  educational  positions  arc  best  fitted  to  judge.  In  now  sub- 
mitting tlie  work  to  tlieir  candid  judgment,  and  to  that  of  the  public  at  large,  particular  attention  is 
invited  to  the  following  characteristics,  by  which  it  is  believed  to  be  pre-eminently  distinguished. 

1.  Tlie  Completeness  with  which  it  presents  the  whole  subject.  Some  text-books  treat  of  only 
one  class  of  faculties,  the  Intellect,  for  example,  omitting  the  Sensibilities  and  the  Will.  This  work 
includes  the  whole.  The  author  knows  of  no  reason  why  Moral  rhilsophy  should  not  treat  of  the 
WHOLE  mind  in  all  its  faculties. 

2.  It  is  strictly  and  thoroughly  sceixtific.  The  author  has  aimed  to  make  a  science  of  the  mind, 
not  merely  a  series  ef  essays  on  certain  faculties,  like  those  of  Stewart  and  licid. 

3.  It  presents  a  careful  axalvsis  of  the  mind  as  a  whole,  with  a  view  to  ascertain  its  several  facul- 
ties. This  point,  which  has  been  greatly  overlooked  by  writers  on  mental  science.  Prof.  Ilaveu  has 
made  a  speciality.    It  ha^  cost  him  immense  study  to  satisfy  himself  in  obtaining  a  true  result 

4.  ThemsToBr  axd  literature  of  each  topic  are  made  the  subject  of  special  attention.  While 
some  treatises  are  wholly  deficient  in  this  respect,  others,  as  that  of  Stewart,  so  intermingle  literary 
and  critical  disquisition,  as  seriously  to  interfere  with  the  scientific  statement  of  the  topic  in  hand. 
Prof.  Haven,  on  the  contrary,  has  traced  the  history  of  each  important  branch  of  the  science,  and 
thrown  the  result  into  a  separate  section  at  the  close.    This  feature  is  regarded  as  wholly  original. 

5.  It  presents  the  latest  RnsuLTS  of  the  science,  especially  the  discoveries  of  Sir  William  Ilam- 
ilton  in  relation  to  the  doctrines  of  Perception  and  of  I^gic.  On  both  of  these  subjects  the  work  is 
Hamiltonian.  The  value  of  this  feature  will  best  be  estimated  by  those  who  know  how  difficult  of 
access  the  Hamiltonian  philosophy  has  hitherto  been.  No  American  writer  before  Prof.  Haven  hag 
presented  any  adequate  or  just  account  of  Sir  William's  theory  of  perception  and  of  reasoning. 

6.  The  author  has  aimed  to  present  the  subject  in  an  attractive  style,  consistently  with  a 
thorough  scientific  treatment.  He  has  proceeded  on  tlie  ground  Uiatadue  combination  of  the  poetic 
clement  with  the  scientific  would  cfft  eta  great  improvement  in  philosoptiic  composition.  Perspicuity 
and  precision,  at  least,  will  be  found  to  be  marked  features  of  his  style. 

7.  The  author  has  studied  condensation^.  Some  of  the  works  in  use  are  exceedingly  diffuse. 
Prof.  Haven  has  compressed  into  one  volume  what  by  other  writers  has  been  spiead  over  three  or 
four.    Both  the  pecuniary  and  the  intellectual  advantages  of  this  condensation  are  obvious. 

Prof.  Park,  of  Andover,  having  examined  a  large  portion  of  the  work  in  manuscript,  snys,  "  It  Is 
Distinol'isiied  lor  its  clearness  of  style,  perspicuity  of  method,  candor  of  spirit,  acumen  and 
comprehensiveness  of  thought.    I  have  been  heartily  interested  in  it." 

THE  "WITNESS  OF  GOD ;  or  The  Natural  E\adence  of  Ilis  Being  and 
Perfections,  as  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  World,  and  the  presumptions 
which  it  affords  in  favor  of  a  Supernatural  Revelation  of  His  Will.  By  Jame3 
Buchanan,  D.  D.,  LL.D.,  Divinity  Professor  in  the  New  College,  Edinburgh; 
author  of  "  Jlodern  Atheism,"  etc.    12mo,  cloth,  $*1.25.    In  prlss. 

GOTITIOLD'S  EMBLEMS;  or, "invisible  things  understood  by  things 
that  are  made.  By  Christian  Sckiver,  Minister  of  JIa;rdeburg  in  1671.  Trans- 
lated from  the  twenty-eighth  German  edition,  by  the  llev.  Kobeut  Menzies. 
12mo,  cloth.     In  press. 

THE  EXTENT  OF  THE  ATONEMENT  in  its  Relations  to  God  and 
the  Universe.    By  Thomas  W.  Jenkyn.  D.  D.    12mo,  cloth,  85  cts.    In  press. 

a^  The  calls  for  this  most  important  and  popular  work,  —  which  for  some  time  past  has  been  out 
of  print  in  this  country,  —  have  been  frequent  and  urgent.  The  publishers,  therefore,  are  linppy  in 
being  able  to  issue  the  work  tuobol'OUlt  beviseo  bt  the  authob,  exfuesslv  for  tub 

AMEBtCAK  EDITlOlr.  (Kk) 


•y 


c.  / 


/<:..r^  -'i.  :_/•£. 


2im 


THE 


FOOT-PRINTS  OF  THE  CREATOR: 


OR, 


THE  ASTEROLEPIS  OF  STROMNESS. 


TT 


HUGH    MILLER; 

AUTHOR   OF   "THE   OLD   RED   SANnSTONE,"   ETC. 


"  When  I  asked  him  how  this  earth  could  have  been  repeopled  if  ever  it  had  under 
gone  the  same  fate  it  was  threatened  with  by  the  comet  of  1083,  he  answered,  —  'that 
required  the  power  of  a  Creator.'  " —  Conduit's  '•  Conversation  mith  Sir  Isaac  JVinctoit  " 


FEOM    THE    THIRD    LONDON    EDITIOX. 

WITH  A  MEMOIR  OF  THE  AUTHOR, 

BY   LOUIS   AGASSIZ. 


BOSTON: 
GOULD      AND      LINCOLN. 

69     WASHISGIOS     STREET. 

NEW  YORK :    SHELDON,  BLAKEMAN  &  CO. 

CINCINNATI :  GEO.  S.  BLANCHAKD. 

1858. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1850,  by 

Gould,  Kendall  and  Lincoln, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Caart  for  the  District  of  MassachMsetta. 


STEREOTYPED  AT  THE  BOSTON  STEREOTYPE  FOUNDRY. 


Printed  by  G.  C  Rand  &  Co.,  No.  3  Cornliill 


TO 

SIR  PHILIP  DE  MALPAS  GREY  EGERTON, 

BART.,  M.  P.,  F.  R.  S.  &  G.  S. 

To  yju,  Sir,  as  our  highest  British  authority  on  fossil  fishes, 
I  take  the  liberty  of  dedicating  this  little  volume.  In  tracing 
the  history  of  Creation,  as  illustrated  in  that  ichthyic  division 
of  the  vertebrata  which  is  at  once  the  most  ancient  and  the 
most  extensively  preserved,  I  have  introduced  a  considerable 
amount  of  fact  and  observation,  for  the  general  integrity  ot 
which  my  appeal  must  lie,  not  to  the  writings  of  my  friends 
the  geologists,  but  to  the  strangely  significant  record  in- 
scribed in  the  rocks,  which  it  is  their  highest  merit  justly  to 
interpret  and  faithfully  to  transcribe.  The  ingenious  and 
popular  author  whose  views  on  Creation  I  attempt  contro- 
verting, virtually  carries  his  appeal  from  science  to  the  wan* 
of  it.  I  would  fain  adopt  an  opposite  course :  And  my  use. 
on  this  occasion,  of  your  name,  may  serve  to  evince  the  de 
sire  which  I  entertain  that  the  collation  of  my  transcripts  of 
hitherto  uncopied  portions  of  the  geologic  history  with  the 


IV  DEDICATION. 

his.ory  itself,  should  be  in  the  hands  of  men  qualified,  by 
original  vigor  of  faculty  and  the  patient  research  of  years, 
either  to  detect  the  erroneous  or  to  certify  the  true.  Fur- 
ther, I  feel  peculiar  pleasure  in  availing  myself  of  the  op- 
portunity furnished  me,  by  the  publication  of  this  little  work, 
of  giving  expression  to  my  sincere  respect  for  one  who,  oc- 
cupying a  high  place  in  society,  and  deriving  his  descent 
from  names  illustrious  in  history,  has  wisely  taken  up  the 
true  position  of  birth  and  rank  in  an  enlightened  country  and 
age  ;  and  who,  in  asserting,  by  his  modest,  persevering  la- 
bors, his  proper  standing  in  the  scientific  world,  has  rendered 
himself  first  among  his  countrymen  in  an  interesting  depart- 
ment c  ?  Natural  Science,  to  which  there  is  no  aristocratic  or 
*roy»  r  ad." 

I  lave  the  honor  to  be.  Sir, 

With  admiration  and  respect, 

Your  obedient  humble  servant, 

HUGH  MILLER. 


TO  THE  READER. 


There  axe  chapters  in  this  little  volume  which 
■v^  ill,  I  am  afraid,  be  deemed  too  prolix  by  the  general 
reader,  and  which  yet  the  geologist  would  like  less 
were  there  any  portion  of  them  away.  They  refer 
chiefly  to  organisms  not  hitherto  figured  nor  described, 
and  must  owe  their  modicum  of  value  to  that  very 
minuteness  of  detail  which,  by  critics  of  the  merely 
literary  type,  unacquainted  with  fossils,  and  not  greatly 
interested  in  them,  may  be  regarded  as  a  formidable 
defect,  suited  to  overlay  the  general  subject  of  the 
work.  Perhaps  the  best  mode  of  compromising  the 
matter  may  be  to  intimate,  as  if  by  beacon,  at  the 
cutset,  the  more  repulsive  chapters ;  somewhat  in  the 
way  that  the  servants  of  the  Humane  Society  indi- 


VI  TO    THE    READER. 

cate  to  the  skater  who  frequents  in  winter  the  lakes 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Edinburgh,  those  parts  of  the 
ice  on  which  he  might  be  in  danger  of  losing  him- 
self I  would  recommend,  then,  readers  not  particu- 
larly palaeontological,  to  pass  but  lightly  over  the 
whole  of  my  fourth  and  fifth  chapters,  with  the  latter 
half  of  the  third,  marking,  however,  as  they  skim  the 
pages,  the  conclusions  at  which  I  arrive  regarding  the 
bulk  and  organization  of  the  extraordinary  animal 
described,  and  the  data  on  which  these  are  founded. 
My  book,  like  an  Irish  landscape  dotted  with  green 
bogs,  has  its  portions  on  which  it  may  be  perilous  for 
the  unpractised  surveyor  to  make  any  considerable 
stand,  but  across  which  he  may  safely  take  his  sights 
and  lay  down  his  angles. 

It  will,  I  trust,  be  found,  that  in  dealing  with  errors 
which,  in  at  least  their  primary  bearing,  afiFect  ques- 
tions of  science,  I  have  not  ofi*ended  against  the  cour- 
tesies of  scientific  controversy.  True,  they  are  errors 
which  also  involve  moral  consequences.  There  is  a 
species  of  superstition  which  inclines  men  to  take  on 
trust  whatever  assumes  the  name  of  science ;  and 
which  seems  to  be  a  reaction  on  the  old  superstition, 
that  had  faith  in  witches,  but  none  in  Sir  Isaac  New- 


TO    THE    READER.  VU 

ton,  and  belie\ed  in  ghosts,  but  failed  to  credit  the 
Gregorian  cahndar.  And,  owing  mainly  to  the  wide 
diffusion  of  this  credulous  spirit  of  the  modern  type, 
as  little  disposed  to  examine  what  it  receives  as  its 
ancient  unreasoning  predecessor,  the  development 
doctrines  are  doing  much  harm  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic,  especially  among  intelligent  mechanics,  and 
a  class  of  young  men  engaged  in  the  subordinate  de- 
partments of  trade  and  the  law.  And  the  harm,  thus 
considerable  in  amount,  must  be  necessarily  more  than 
merely  considerable  in  degree.  For  it  invariably  hap- 
pens, that  when  persons  in  these  walks  become  ma- 
terialists, they  become  also  turbulent  subjects  and  bad 
men.  That  belief  in  the  existence  after  death,  which 
forms  the  distinguishing  instinct  of  humanity,  is  too 
essential  a  part  of  man's  moral  constitution  not  to  be 
missed  when  away  ;  and  so,  when  once  fairly  eradi- 
cated, the  life  and  conduct  rarely  fail  to  betray  its 
absence.  But  I  have  not,  from  any  consideration  of 
the  mischief  thus  effected,  written  as  if  arguments, 
like  cannon-balls,  could  be  rendered  more  formidable 
(han  in  the  cool  state  by  being  made  red-hot.  I  have 
not  even  felt,  in  discussing  the  question,  as  if  I  had 
a  man  before  me  as  an  opponent  j  for  though  ray 
B 


Vlll  TO    THE    READER. 

work  conta'ns  numerous  references  to  the  author  of 
the  '•'■  Vestiges,"  I  have  invariably  thought  on  these 
occasions,  not  of  the  anonymous  writer  of  the  vol- 
ume, of  whom  I  know  nothing,  but  simply  of  an  in- 
genious, well-written  book,  unfortunate  in  its  facts, 
and  not  always  very  happy  in  its  reasonings.  Fur- 
ther, I  do  not  think  that  palaeontological  fact,  in  its 
bearing  on  the  points  at  issue,  is  of  such  a  doubtful 
■complexion  as  to  leave  the  geologist,  however  much 
from  moral  considerations  in  earnest  in  the  matter, 
any  very  serious  excuse  for  losing  his  temper. 

In  my  reference  to  the  three  great  divisions  of  the 
geologic  scale,  I  designate  as  PalcBOzoic  all  the  fossil- 
iferous  rocks,  from  the  first  appearance  of  organic  ex- 
istence down  to  the  close  of  the  Permian  system  ;  all 
as  Secondary,  from  the  close  of  the  Permian  system 
down  to  the  close  of  the  Cretaceous  deposits ;  and  all 
as  Tertiary,  from  the  close  of  the  Cretaceous  deposits 
down  to  the  introduction  of  man.  The  wood-cuts 
of  the  volume,  of  which  at  least  nine  tenths  of  the 
whole  represent  objects  never  figured  before,  were 
drawn  and  cut  by  Mr.  John  Adams  of  Edinburgh, 
(8,  Heriot  Place,)  with  a  degree  of  care  and  skill 
which  has  left  aie  no  reason  to  regret  my  distance 


TO    THE    READER. 


from  the  London  artists  and  engravers.  So  far  at 
least  as  the  objects  could  be  adequately  represented 
on  wood,  and  in  the  limited  space  at  Mr.  Adams' 
command,  their  truth  is  such  that  I  can  safely  recom- 
mend them  to  the  pala3ontologist.  In  the  accompa- 
nying descriptions,  and  in  my  statements  of  geologic 
fact  in  general,  it  will,  I  hope,  be  seen  that  I  have 
not  exaggerated  the  peculiar  features  on  which  I  have 
founded,  nor  rendered  truth  partial  in  order  to  make 
it  serve  a  purpose.  Where  I  have  reasoned  and  in- 
ferred, the  reader  will  of  course  be  able  to  judge  for 
himself  whether  the  argument  be  sound  or  the  deduc- 
tion just ;  and  to  weigh,  where  I  have  merely  specu- 
lated, the  probability  of  the  speculation  ;  but  as,  in 
at  least  some  of  my  statements  of  fact,  he  might  lie 
more  at  my  mercy,  I  have  striven  in  every  instance 
to  make  these  adequately  representative  of  the  ac- 
tualities to  which  they  refer.  And  so,  if  it  be  ulti- 
mately found  that  on  some  occasions  I  have  misled 
others,  it  will,  I  hope,  be  also  seen  to  be  only  in  cases 
in  which  I  have  been  mistaken  myself.  The  first  or 
popular  title  of  my  work,  "  Foot-prints  of  the  Ci-e- 
ator,"  I  owe  to  Dr.  Hetherington,  the  well-known 
historijin  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.     My  other  va- 


X  TO    THE    KEADER. 

rious  obligations  to  my  friends,  literary  and  scientific, 
the  reader  will  find  acknowledged  in  the  body  of  the 
volume,  as  the  occasion  occurs  of  availing  myself  of 
either  the  information  communicated,  or  the  organ- 
ism, recent  or  extinct,  lent  me  or  given. 


HUGH    MILLER, 

AUTHOR  OF 

"OLD  RED  SANDSTONE"  AND  «' FOOTPRINTS  OP  THE  CREATOR" 


The  geological  works  of  Hugh  Miller  have  excited  the  greatest 
interest,  not  only  among  scientific  men,  but  also  among  general  read- 
ers. There  is  in  them  a  freshness  of  conception,  a  power  of  argu- 
mentation, a  depth  of  thought,  a  purity  of  feelings,  rarely  met  with 
in  works  of  that  character,  which  are  well  calculated  to  call  forth 
sympathy,  and  to  increase  the  popularity  of  a  science  which  has  al- 
ready done  so  much  to  expand  our  views  of  the  Plan  of  Creation. 
The  scientific  illustrations  published  by  Mr.  Miller  are  most  happily 
combined  with  considerations  of  a  higher  order,  rendering  both 
equally  acceptable  to  the  thinking  reader.  But  what  is  in  a  great 
degree  peculiar  to  our  author,  is  the  successful  combination  of  Chris- 
tian doctrines  with  pure  scientific  truths.  On  that  account,  his 
works  deserve  peculiar  attention.  His  generalizations  have  nothing 
of  the  vagueness  which  too  often  characterize  the  writings  of  those 
authors  who  have  attempted  to  make  the  results  of  science  subservi- 
ent to  the  cause  of  religion.  Struck  with  the  beauty  of  Mr,  Miller'5 
works,  it  has  for  some  time  past  been  my  wish  to  see  them  more  exten- 
sively circulated  in  this  country ;  and  I  have  obtained  leave  from  the 
author  to  publish  an  American  edition  of  his  "  Footprints  of  the 
Creator,"  for  which  he  has  most  liberally  furnished  the  publishers 
with  the  admirable  wood-cuts  of  the  original. 

While  preparing  some  additional  chapters,  and  various  notes  illus- 
trative of  certain  points  alluded  to  incidentally  in  this  work,  .t  was 
deemed  advisable  to  preface  it  with  a  short  biographical  notice  of 

B* 


XU  HUGH    MILLER. 

the  author.  I  had  already  sketched  such  a  paper,  when  I  becam* 
acquainted  with  a  full  memoir  of  this  remarkable  man,  containing 
most  interesting  details  of  his  earlier  life,  •written  by  that  eminent 
historian  of  the  "  Martyrs  of  Science,"  the  great  natural  philosopher 
of  Scotland.  It  has  occurred  to  me  that,  owing  to  the  frequent  ref- 
erences which  I  could  not  avoid  to  my  own  researches,  I  had  better 
substitute  this  ample  Biography  for  my  short  sketch,  Avith  such  alter- 
ations and  additions  as  the  coiinection  in  which  it  is  brought  here 
would  require.  I  therefore  proceed  to  introduce  our  author  ■with  Sir 
David  Brewster's  own  words  :  — 

Of  all  the  studies  which  relate  to  the  material  universe,  there 
is  nonej  perhaps,  which  appeals  so  powerfully  to  our  senses,  or 
which  comes  into  such  close  and  immediate  contact  with  our  wants 
and  enjojTnents,  as  that  of  Geology.  In  our  hourly  walks,  whether 
on  business  or  for  pleasure,  we  tread  mth  heedless  step  upon  the  ap- 
parently uninteresting  objects  which  it  embraces :  but  could  we 
rightly  interrogate  the  rounded  pebble  at  our  feet,  it  would  read  us 
an  exciting  chapter  on  the  history  of  primeval  times,  and  would  tell 
us  of  the  convulsions  by  which  it  was  wrenched  from  its  parent  rock, 
and  of  the  floods  by  which  it  was  abraded  and  transported  to  its 
present  humble  locality.  In  our  visit  to  the  picturesque  and  the 
sublime  in  nature,  we  are  brought  into  closer  proximity  to  the  more 
interesting  phenomena  of  geology.  In  the  precipices  which  protect 
our  rock- girt  shores,  which  flank  our  mountain  glens,  or  which  va- 
riegate our  lowland  valleys,  and  in  the  shapeless  fragments  at  their 
base,  which  the  lichen  colors,  and  round  which  the  lA-y  twines,  we 
see  the  remnants  of  uplifted  and  shattered  beds,  which  once  re- 
posed in  peace  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  Nor  does  the  rounded 
boulder,  which  would  have  defied  the  lapidary's  wheel  of  the  Giant 
Age,  give  forth  a  less  oracular  response  from  its  grave  of  clay,  or 
from  its  lair  of  sand.  Floated  by  ice  from  some  Alpine  summit,  or 
hurried  along  in  torrents  of  mud,  and  floods  of  water,  it  may  have 
traversed  a  quarter  of  the  globe,  amid  the  crash  of  falling  for- 
ests, and  the  death  shrieks  of  the  noble  animals  which  they  sheltered 
The  mountain  range,  too,  with  its  catacombs  below,  along  which  tht 
earthquake  transmits  its  terrific  sounds,  reminds  us  of  the  mightj 
power  by  which  it  was  upheaved ;  —  while  the  lofty  peak,  mth  its 
cap  of  ice,  or  its  nostrils  of  fire,  places  in  our  view  the  tremendous 
agencies  which  have  beer  at  work  beneath  us. 

But  it  is  not  merely  amid  the  powers  of  external  nature  that  the 
once  hidden  things  of  the  Earth  are  presented  to  our  view.    Om 


HtJGH    MILLER.  Xlll 

temples  and  our  palaces  are  formed  from  the  rocks  of  a  primeval  age  • 
bearing  the  very  ripple-marks  of  a  Pre- Adamite  ocean,  —  grooved  by 
the  passage  of  the  once  moving  boulder,  and  embosoming  the  relics 
of  ancient  life,  and  the  plants  by  which  it  Avas  sustained.  Our 
dwellings,  too,  arc  ornamented  with  the  variegated  limestones,  —  the 
indurated  tombs  of  molluscous  life,  —  and  our  apartments  heated 
with  the  carbon  of  primeval  forests,  and  lighted  with  the  gaseous 
element  which  it  confines.  The  obelisk  of  granite,  and  the  colossal 
bronze  which  transmit  to  future  ages  the  deeds  of  the  hero  and  the 
sage,  are  equally  the  production  of  the  Earth's  prolific  womb  ;  and 
from  the  green  bed  of  the  ocean  has  been  raised  the  pure  and  spot- 
less marble,  to  mould  the  divine  lineaments  of  beauty,  and  perpetu- 
ate the  expressions  of  intellectual  power.  From  a  remoter  age,  and 
a  still  greater  depth,  the  primary  and  secondary  rocks  have  yielded  a 
rich  tribute  to  the  chaplet  of  rank,  and  to  the  processes  of  art. 

Exhibiting,  as  it  pecuHarly  does,  almost  all  those  objects  of  inter- 
est and  research,  Scotland  has  been  dihgently  studied  both  by  na- 
tive and  foreign  observers ;  and  she  has  sent  into  the  geological  field 
a  distinguished  group  of  inquirers,  who  have  performed  a  noble  feat 
in  exploring  the  general  structure  of  the  Earth,  in  dccyphering  its 
ancient  monuments,  and  in  unlocking  those  storehouses  of  mineral 
Avealth,  from  which  civilized  man  derives  the  elements  of  that  gigan- 
tic power  which  his  otherwise  feeble  arm  wields  over  nature. 

The  occurrence  of  shells  on  the  highest  mountains,  and  the  re- 
mains of  plants  and  animals,  which  the  most  superficial  observer 
could  not  fail  to  notice,  in  the  rocks  around  him,  have  for  centuries 
commanded  the  attention  and  exercised  the  ingenuity  of  every  stu- 
dent of  nature.  But  though  sparks  of  geological  truth  were  from 
time  to  time  elicited  by  speculative  minds,  it  was  not  till  the  end  of 
the  last  century  that  its  great  lights  broke  forth,  and  that  it  took  the 
form  and  character  of  one  of  the  noblest  of  the  sciences.  Without 
undervaluing  the  labors  of  Werner,  and  other  illustrious  foreigners, 
or  those  of  our  southern  countrymen,  Mitchell  and  Smith,  at  the 
close  of  the  last  century,  we  may  characterize  the  commencement  of 
the  present  as  the  brightest  period  of  geological  discovery,  and  place 
its  most  active  locality  in  the  northern  metropolis  of  our  island.  It 
was  doubtless  from  the  lloyal  Society  of  Edinbiirgh,  as  a  centre,  that 
a  great  geological  impulse  was  propagated  southward,  and  it  was  by 
the  collision  of  the  Wernerian  and  Huttonian  views,  the  antagonist 
theories  of  water  and  of  fire,  that  men  of  intellectual  power  were 
■anuuoned  from  other  studies ;  and  that  grand  truths,  which  fanati 


XIV  HUGH    MILLER. 

oism  and  intolerance  had  hitherto  abjured,  rose  triumphant  over  tho 
ignorance  and  bigotry  of  the  age.  The  Geological  Society  of  London, 
which  doubtless  sprung  from  the  excitement  in  the  Scottish  metropo- 
lis, entered  on  the  new  field  of  research  with  a  faltering  step.  The 
prejudices  of  the  English  mind  had  been  marshalled  with  illiberal 
violence  against  the  Huttonian  doctrines.  Infidelity  and  Atheism 
were  charged  against  their  supporters ;  and  had  there  been  a  Protes- 
tant Inquisition  in  England  at  that  period  of  general  political  excite- 
ment, the  geologists  of  the  north  wovild  have  been  immured  in  its 
deepest  dungeons. 

Truth,  however,  marched  apace;  and  though  her  simple  but  ma- 
jestic procession  be  often  solemn  and  slow,  and  her  votaries  few  and 
dejected,  yet  on  this,  as  on  every  occasion,  she  triumphed  over  the 
most  inveterate  prepossessions,  and  finally  took  up  her  abode  in  those 
very  halls  and  institutions  where  she  had  been  persecuted  and  re- 
viled. When  their  science  had  been  thus  acquitted  of  the  chai-ge  of 
impiety  and  irreligion,  the  members  of  the  Geological  Society  left 
their  humble  and  timid  position  of  being  the  collectors  only  of  the 
materials  of  future  generalizations,  and  became  at  once  the  most  suc- 
cessful observers  of  geological  phenomena,  and  the  boldest  asserters 
of  geological  truth. 

In  this  field  of  research,  in  which  the  physical,  as  well  as  the  in  - 
tellectual,  frame  of  the  philosopher  is  made  tributary  to  science,  two 
of  our  countrymen  —  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  and  Sir  Charles  Lyell 
—  have  been  among  our  most  active  laborers.  From  the  study  of 
their  native  glens,  these  distinguished  travellers,  like  the  Humboldts 
and  the  Von  Buchs  of  the  continent,  have  passed  into  foreign  lands, 
exploring  the  north  and  the  south  of  Europe,  and  extending  their 
labors  to  the  eastern  ranges  of  the  Ural  and  the  Timan,  and  to  the 
Apallachians  and  the  Alleghanies  in  the  far  west.  But  while  our 
tvvo  countrymen  were  interrogating  the  strata  of  other  lands,  many 
able  and  active  laborers  had  been  at  work  in  their  own. 

Among  the  eminent  students  of  the  structure  of  the  earth,  Mr. 
Hugh  MUler  holds  a  lofty  place,  not  merely  from  the  discovery  of 
new  and  undescribed  organisms  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  but  from 
the  accuracy  and  beauty  of  his  descriptions,  the  purity  and  elegance 
of  his  composition,  and  the  high  tone  of  philosophy  and  reUgion 
which  distinguishes  all  his  writings.  Mr.  Miller  is  one  of  the  few 
individuals  ui  the  history  of  Scottish  science  who  have  raised 
themselves  above  the  labors  of  an  humble  profession,  by  the  force 
of  their  genius  and  the  excellence  of  their  character,  to  a  compara- 


HUCH    MILLEB.  XV 

tively  high  place  in  the  social  scale.  Mr.  Telford,  like  Mr.  Miller, 
followed  the  profession  of  a  stone-mason,  before  his  industry  and 
self- tuition  quahfied  him  for  the  higher  functions  of  an  architect 
and  an  engineer.  And  Mr.  Watt  and  Mr.  Rennie  rose  to  "wealth 
and  fame  without  the  aid  of  a  university  education.  But,  distin- 
guished as  these  individuals  were,  none  of  them  possessed  those 
qualities  of  mind  which  Mr.  Miller  has  exhibited  in  his  writings  ; 
and,  with  the  exception  of  Burns,  the  uneducated  genius  which  has 
done  honor  to  Scotland  during  the  last  century,  has  never  displayed 
that  mental  refinement,  and  classical  taste,  and  intellectual  energy^ 
which  mark  all  the  writings  of  our  author.  We  wish  that  we 
could  have  gratified  our  readers  with  an  authentic  and  even  detailed 
narrative  of  the  previous  history  of  so  remarkable  a  writer,  and  of 
the  steps  by  which  his  knowledge  was  acquired,  and  the  difficulties 
which  he  encountered  in  its  pursuit ;  but  though  this  is  not,  to  any 
great  extent,  in  our  power,  we  shall  at  least  be  able,  chiefly  from 
Mr.  Miller's  own  writings,  to  follow  him  throughout  his  geological 
career. 

Mr.  Ikinier  was  bom  at  Cromarty,  of  humble  but  respectable  pa- 
rents, whose  history  would  have  possessed  no  inconsiderable  interest, 
even  if  it  had  not  derived  one  of  a  higher  kind  from  the  genius  and 
fortunes  of  their  child.  By  the  paternal  side  he  was  descended 
from  a  race  of  sea-faring  people,  whose  family  burying-ground,  if 
we  judge  from  the  past,  seems  to  be  the  sea.  Under  its  green  waves 
his  father  sleeps :  his  grandfather,  his  two  granduncles,  one  of  whom 
sailed  roimd  the  world  with  Anson,  lie  also  there ;  and  the  same 
extensive  cemetery  contains  the  relics  of  several  of  his  more  distant 
relatives.  His  father  was  but  an  infant  of  scarcely  a  year  old,  at 
the  death  of  our  author's  grandfather,  and  had  to  commence  life  as  a 
poor  ship-boy  ;  but  such  was  the  energy  of  his  mind,  that,  when 
little  turned  of  thirty,  he  had  become  the  master  and  owner  of  a 
fine  large  sloop,  and  had  built  himself  a  good  house,  which  entitled 
his  son  to  the  franchise  on  the  passing  of  the  Reform  Bill.  Having 
unfortunately  lost  his  sloop  in  a  storm,  he  had  to  begin  the  world 
anew,  and  he  soon  became  master  and  owner  of  another,  and  would 
have  thriven,  had  he  lived ;  but  the  hereditary  fate  was  too  strong 
for  him,  and  when  our  author  was  a  little  boy  of  five  summers,  his 
father's  fine  new  sloop  foundered  at  sea  in  a  terrible  tempest,  and 
he  and  his  crew  were  never  more  heard  of.  Mr.  Miller  had  two 
sisters  yoimger  than  himself,  both  of  whom  died  ere  they  attained 


XVI  HUGH    MILLER. 

to  womanhood.      His    mother  experienced    the  usual  difficulties 
which  a  -Hidow  has  to  encounter  in  the  decent  education  of  her 
famCy ;  but  she  struggled  honestly  and  successfully,  and  ixltimately 
found  her  reward  in  the  character  and  fame  of  her  son.     It  is  from 
this  excellent  woman  that  Mr.  Miller  has  inherited  those  sentiments 
and  feelings  which  have  given  energy  to  his  talents  as  the  defender 
of  revealed  truth,  and  the  champion  of  the  Church  of  his  fathers. 
Sh'?  was  the  great  granddaughter  of  a  venerable  man,  still  well 
knrwn  to  tradition  in  the  north  of  Scotland  as  Donald  Roy  of  Nigg, 
—  a  sort  of  northern  Peden,  who  is  described  in  the  history  of  our 
Church  as  the  single  individual  who,  at  the  age  of  eighty,  when  the 
presbytery  of  the  district  had  assembled  in  the  empty  church  for 
■the  purpose  of  inducting  an  obnoxious  presentee,  had  the  courage 
to  protest  against  the  intrusion,  and  to  declare  "  that  the  blood  of 
the  people  of  Nigg  would  be  required  at  their  hands,  if  they  settled 
a  man  to  the  walls  of  that  church."     Tradition  has  represented  him 
as  a  seer  of  visions,  and  a  prophesier  of  prophecies ;  but  whatever 
credit  may  be  given  to  stories  of  this  kind,  which  have  been  told 
also  of  Knox,  Welsh,  and  Rutherford,  this  ancient  champion  of 
Non-Tntrusion  was  a  man  of  genuine  piety,  and  the  savor  of  his 
ennobling  behefs  and  his  strict  morals  has  survived  in  his  family 
for  generations.     If  the  child  of  such  parents  did  not  receive  the  best 
education  which  his  native  town  could  afford,  it  was  not  their  fault, 
nor  that  of  his  teacher.     The  fetters  of  a  gymnasium  are  not  easily 
worn  by  the  adventurous  youth  who  has  sought  and  found  his  pleas- 
ures among  the  hills  and  on  the  waters.     They  chafe  the  young  and 
active  limb  that  has  grown  vigorous  under  the  blue  sky,  and  never 
known  repose  but  at  midnight.     The  young  philosopher  of  Cromarty 
was  a  member  of  this  restless  community  ;  and  he  had  been  the  hero 
of  adventures  and  accidents  among  rocks  and  woods,  which  are  still 
remembered  in  his  native  town.     The  parish  school  was  therefore 
not  the  scene  of  liis  enjoyments ;  and  whUe  he  was  a  truant,  and, 
with  reverence  be  it  spoken,  a  dunce,  while  under  its  jurisdiction, 
he  was  busy  in  the  fields  apd  on  the  sea-shore  in  collecting  those 
stores  of  knowledge  which  he  was  bom  to  dispense  among  his  fellow- 
men.     He  escaped,  however,  from  school,  with  the  knowledge  of 
reading,  writing,  and  a  little  arithmetic,  and  -with  the  credit  of  unit- 
ing a  great  memory  with  a  little  scholarship.     Unlike  his  illustrious 
predecessor,  Cuvier,  he  had  studied  Natural  History  in  the  fields  and 
among  the  mountains  ere  he  had  sought  for  it  in  books ;  while  the 


HUGH    MILLER,  XVU 

French  p  "ilosopher  had  become  a  learned  naturalist  before  he  had 
even  looked  upon  the  world  of  Nature.  This  smgular  contrast  it 
IS  not  diffi.:;ult  to  explain.  With  a  sickly  constitution  and  a  delicate 
frame,  the  youtliful  Cuvier  wanted  that  physical  activity  which  the 
observation  of  Nature  demands.  Our  Scottish  geologist,  on  the  con- 
trary, in  vigorous  health,  and  with  an  iron  frame,  rushed  to  the 
rocks  and  the  sea-shore  in  search  of  the  instruction  which  was  not 
provided  for  him  at  school,  and  which  he  could  find  no  books  to 
supply. 

After  receiving  this  measure  of  education,  Mr.  Miller  set  out  in 
February,  1821,  with  a  heavy  heart,  as  he  himself  confesses,  "  to 
make  his  first  acquaintance  with  a  life  of  labor  and  restraint : "  — 

"  I  was  but  a  slim,  loose-jointed  boy  at  the  time,  fond  of  the  pretty 
intangibilities  of  romance,  and  of  dreaming  when  broad  awake ;  and  wo- 
ful  change  !  I  was  now  going  to  work  at  what  Burns  has  instanced  in  his 
'  Twa  Dogs  '  as  one  of  the  most  disagreeable  of  all  employments  — to 
work  in  a  quarry.  Bating  the  passing  uneasiness  occasioned  by  a  few 
gloomy  anticipations,  the  portion  of  my  life  which  had  alreadj'  gone  by 
had  been  happy  beyond  the  common  lot.  I  had  been  a  wanderer  among 
rocks  and  woods,  — a  reader  of  curious  books,  when  I  could  get  them,  — a 
gleaner  of  old  traditionary  stories, — and  now  I  was  going  to  exchange 
all  my  day-dreams  and  all  my  amusements  for  the  kind  of  life  in  which 
men  toil  every  day  that  they  may  be  enabled  to  eat,  and  eat  every  day 
that  they  may  be  enabled  to  toil.  The  quarry  in  which  I  wrought  lay  on 
the  southern  shore  of  a  noble  inland  bay,  or  frith,  rather,  (the  Bay  of 
Cromarty,)  with  a  little,  clear  stream  on  the  one  side,  and  a  thick  fir  wood 
on  the  other.  It  had  been  opened  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  of  the  dis- 
trict, and  was  overtopped  by  a  huge  bank  of  diluvial  clay,  and  which  rose 
over  it  in  some  places  to  the  height  of  nearly  thirty  feet." — Old  Red 
Sandstone,  p.  4. 

After  removing  the  loose  fragments  below,  picks  and  wedges  and 
levers  were  applied  in  vain  by  our  author  and  his  brother  workmen 
to  tear  up  and  remove  the  huge  strata  beneath.  Blasting  by  gun- 
powder became  necessary.  A  mass  of  the  diluvial  clay  came  tumbling 
down,  "  bearing  with  it  two  dead  birds,  that  in  a  recent  storm  had 
crept  into  one  of  the  deeper  fissures,  to  die  in  the  shelter."  While 
admiring  the  pretty  cock  goldfinch,  and  the  light-blue  and  grayish- 
yellow  woodpecker,  and  morahzing  on  their  fate,  the  workmen  were 
ordered  to  lay  aside  their  tools,  and  thus  ended  the  first  day's  labor 
of  our  young  geologist.  The  sun  was  then  sinking  behind  the  thick 
fir  wood  behind  him,  and  the  long  dark  shadows  of  the  trees  stretch- 


XVIU  HUGH    MILLER. 

ing  to  the  shore.  Notwithstanding  his  blistered  hands,  and  the 
fatigue  -which  blistered  them,  he  found  himself  next  morning  as  light 
of  heart  as  his  fellow-laborers,  and  able  to  enjoy  the  magnificent 
scenery  around  him,  Avhich  he  thus  so  beautifully  describes  :  — 

"  There  had  been  a  smart  frost  during  the  night,  and  the  rime  lay  white 
on  the  grass  as  we  passed  onwards  through  the  fields  ;  but  the  sun  rose  in 
a  clear  atmosphere,  and  the  day  mellowed  as  it  advanced  into  one  of  those 
delightful  daj's  of  early  spring  which  give  so  pleasing  an  earnest  of  what- 
ever is  mild  and  genial  in  the  better  half  of  the  year.  All  the  workmen 
rested  at  midday,  and  I  went  to  enjoy  my  half  hour  alone  on  a  mossy 
knoll  in  the  neighboring  wood,  which  commands  through  the  trees  a  wide 
prospect  of  the  bay  and  the  opposite  shore.  There  was  not  a  wrinkle  on 
the  water,  nor  a  cloud  in  the  sky ;  and  the  branches  were  as  moveless  in 
the  calm  as  if  they  had  been  traced  on  canvas.  From  a  wooded  promon- 
tory that  stretched  half  way  across  the  frith,  there  ascended  a  thin  col- 
umn of  smoke.  It  rose  straight  on  the  line  of  a  plummet  for  more  than  a 
thousand  yards  ;  and  then,  as  reaching  a  thinner  stratum  of  air,  spread  out 
equally  on  every  side,  like  the  foliage  of  a  stately  tree.  Ben  Wevis  rose 
to  the  west,  white  with  the  yet  unwasted  snows  of  winter,  and  as  sharply 
defined  in  the  clear  atmosphere  as  if  all  its  sunny  slopes  and  blue  retiring 
hollows  had  been  chiselled  in  marble.  A  line  of  snow  ran  along  the  oppo- 
site hills;  all  above  was  white,  and  all  below  was  purple."  —  Old  Red 
Sandstone,  pp.  6,  7. 

In  raising  from  its  bed  the  large  mass  of  strata  which  the  gunpow- 
der had  loosened,  on  the  surface  of  the  soHd  stone,  our  young  quar- 
rier  descried  the  ridged  and  furrowed  ripple  marks  which  the  tide 
leaves  upon  every  sandy  shore,  and  he  wondered  what  had  become 
of  the  waves  that  had  thus  fretted  the  sohd  rock,  and  of  what  ele- 
ment they  had  been  composed.  His  admiration  was  equally  excited 
by  a  circular  depression  in  the  sandstone,  "  broken  and  flawed  in 
every  direction,  as  if  it  had  been  the  bottom  of  a  pool  recently  dried 
up,  which  had  shrunk  and  split  in  the  hardening."  And  before  the 
day  closed,  a  series  of  large  stones  had  rolled  down  from  the  clay, 
"  all  rounded  and  water- worn,  as  if  they  had  been  tossed  in  the  sea 
or  the  bed  of  a  river  for  hundreds  of  years."  Was  the  clay  which 
enclosed  them  created  on  the  rock  upon  which  it  lay  ?  No  workman 
ever  manufacttires  a  half- worn  article  !  —  were  the  ejaculations  o* 
the  geologist  at  his  alphabet. 

Our  author  and  his  companions  were  Foon  removed  to  an  easier 
•wrought  quarry,  and  one  more  pregnant  with  interest,  which  had 
Oeen  opened  "in  a  lofty  wall  of  clifi"s  tliat  overhangs  the  northern 


HTTGH    MILLER.  XIX 

shore  of  the  Moray  Frith."     Here  the  geology  of  the  district  exhib- 
ited itself  in  section. 

"  We  see  in  one  place  the  primary  rock,  -with  its  veins  of  granite  and 
quartz,  —  its  dizzy  precipices  of  gneiss,  and  its  huge  masses  of  hornblende  ; 
•vre  find  the  secondary  rock  in  another,  with  its  bed  of  sandstone  and 
shale,  —  its  spars,  its  clays,  and  its  nodular  limestones.  We  discover  the 
still  little  known  but  highly  interesting  fossils  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone 
in  one  deposition ;  we  find  the  beautifully  preserved  shells  and  lignites 
of  the  lias  in  another.  There  are  the  remains  of  two  several  creations  at 
once  before  us.  The  shore,  too,  is  heaped  with  rolled  fragments  of  almost 
every  variety  of  rock,  —  basalts,  ironstones,  hypersthenes,  porphyries, 
bituminous  shales,  and  micaceous  schists.  In  short,  the  young  geologist, 
had  he  all  Europe  before  him,  could  hardly  choose  for  himself  a  better 
field.  I  had,  however,  no  one  to  tell  me  so  at  the  time,  for  geology  had 
not  yet  travelled  so  far  north  ;  and  so,  without  guide  or  vocabulary,  I  had 
to  grope  my  way  as  I  best  might,  and  find  out  all  its  wonders  for  myself. 
But  so  slow  was  the  process,  and  so  much  was  I  a  seeker  in  the  dark,  that 
the  facts  contained  in  these  few  sentences  were  the  patient  gatherings  of 
years." —  Old  Red  Sandstcme,  pp.  9,  10. 

In  this  rich  field  of  inquiry,  our  author  encountered,  almost  daily, 
new  objects  of  M'onder  and  instruction.  In  one  nodular  mass  of 
limestone  he  found  the  beautiful  ammonite,  like  one  of  the  iinely 
sculptured  volutes  of  an  Ionic  capital.  "Within  others,  fish-scales 
and  bivalve  shells  ;  and  in  the  centre  of  another  he  detected  a  piece 
of  decayed  wood.  Upon  quitting  the  quarry  for  the  building  upon 
which  the  workmen  were  to  be  employed,  the  workmen  received 
half  a  holiday,  and  our  young  philosopher  devoted  this  valuable 
interval  to  search  for  certain  curiously  shaped  stones,  which  one  of 
the  quarriers  told  him  resembled  the  heads  of  boarding-pikes,  and 
which,  under  the  name  of  thunder-boUs,  were  held  to  be  a  sovereign 
remedy  for  cattle  that  had  been  bewitched.  On  the  shore  two  miles 
off,  where  he  expected  these  remarkable  bodies,  he  found  deposits 
quite  different  either  from  the  sandstone  cliffs  or  the  primary  rocks 
further  to  the  west.  They  consisted  of  "  thin  strata  of  limestone, 
alternating  with  thicker  beds  of  a  black  slaty  substance,"  which 
burned  with  a  bright  flame  and  a  bituminous  odor.  Though  only 
the  eighth  part  of  an  inch  thick,  each  layer  contained  thousands  of 
fossils  peculiar  to  the  lias,  —  scallops  and  gryphites,  ammonites,  twigs 
and  leaves  of  plants,  cones  of  pine,  pieces  of  charcoal,  and  scales  of 
fiishes,  —  the  impressions  being  of  a  chalky  whiteness,  contrasting 
strikingly  with  their  black  bituminous  lair.  Among  these  fragments 
of  animal  and  vegetable  life,  he  at  last  detected  his  thunder-bolt  in  the 
c 


XX  HUGH    MILLER. 

form  of  a  Beleninite,  the  remains  of  a  kind  of  cuttle-fish  long  sine* 
extinct. 

In  the  exercise  of  his  profession,  which  "  was  a  wandering  one," 
our  author  advanced  steadily,  though  slowly  and  surely,  in  his  geo- 
logical acquirements. 

"  I  remember,"  says  he,  "  passing  direct  on  one  occasion  from  the  wild 
western  coast  of  Ross-shire,  where  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  leans  at  a  high 
angle  against  the  prevailing  quartz  rock  of  the  district,  to  where,  on  the 
southern  skirts  of  Mid-Lothian,  the  mountain  limestone  rises  amid  the 
coal,  I  have  resided  one  season  on  a  raised  beach  on  the  Moray  Frith. 
I  have  spent  the  season  immediately  following  amid  the  ancient  granites 
and  contorted  schists  of  the  central  Highlands.  In  the  north,  I  have  laid 
open  by  thousands  the  shells  and  lignites  of  the  Oolite  ;  in  the  south,  I 
have  disinterred  from  their  matrices  of  stone  or  of  shale  the  huge  reeds 
and  tree  ferns  of  the  carboniferous  period.  *  *  *  In  the  north,  there 
occurs  a  vast  gap  in  the  scale.  The  Lias  leans  unconformably  against 
the  Old  Red  Sandstone;  there  is  no  mountain  limestone,  no  coal  meas- 
ures, none  of  the  New  Red  Marls  or  Sandstones.  There  are  at  least 
three  entire  systems  omitted.  But  the  upper  portion  of  the  scale  is  well- 
nigh  complete.  In  one  locality  we  may  pass  from  the  Lower  to  the  Upper 
Lias,  in  another  from  the  Inferior  to  the  Great  Oolite,  and  onward  to  the 
Oxford  Clay  and  the  Coral  Rag.  We  may  explore  in  a  third  locality  beds 
identical  in  their  organisms  with  the  Wealden  of  Sussex.  In  a  fourth,  we 
find  the  flints  and  fossils  of  the  chalk.  The  lower  part  of  the  scale  is 
also  well-nigh  complete.  The  Old  Red  Sandstone  is  amply  developed  in 
Moray,  Caithness,  and  Ross,  and  the  Grauwacke  very  extensively  in 
Banffshire.  But  to  acquaint  one's  self  with  the  three  missing  formations, 
—  to  complete  one's  knowledge  of  the  entire  scale,  by  filling  up  the 
hiatus,  —  it  is  necessary  to  remove  to  the  south.  The  geology  of  the  Lo- 
thians  is  the  geology  of  at  least  two  thirds  of  the  gap,  and  perhaps  a 
little  more  ;  —  the  geology  of  Arran  wants  only  a  few  of  the  upper  beds 
of  the  New  Rod  Sandstone  to  fill  it  entirely."  —  Old  Red  Sandstone, 
pp.  13-17. 

After  having  spent  nearly  fifteen  years  in  the  profession  of  a  stone- 
mason, ^Ir.  Miller  was  promoted  to  a  position  more  suited  to  his 
genius.  "When  a  bank  was  established  in  his  native  town  of  Crom- 
aity,  he  received  the  appointment  of  accountant,  and  he  was  thus 
employed,  for  five  years,  in  keeping  ledgers  and  discounting  bills. 
When  the  contest  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  come  to  a  close,  by 
the  decision  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  the  Auchtorarder  Case,  Mr. 
Miller's  celebrated  letter  to  Lord  Brougham  attracted  the  particu- 
lar attention  of  the  party  which  was  about  to  leave  the  Establish- 
ment, and  he  was  selected  as  the  most  competent  person  to  conduct 


HUGH    MILLER.  ZXi 

C  Vitness  newspaper,  the  principal  metropolitan  organ  of  the  Free 
Q.UiCh.  The  great  success  which  this  journal  has  met  with  is  owing, 
doubtless,  to  the  line  articles,  political,  ecclesiastical,  and  geological, 
which  Mr.  Miller  has  written  for  it.  In  the  few  leisure  hours  which 
so  engrossing  an  occupation  has  allowed  him  to  enjoy,  he  has  devoted 
himself  to  the  ardent  prosecution  of  scientific  inquiries  ;  and  we  trust 
the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  liberality  of  his  country,  to  which 
he  has  done  so  much  honor,  Avill  allow  him  to  give  his  whole  time  to 
the  prosecution  of  science. 

Geologists  of  high  character  had  believed  that  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone was  defective  in  organic  remains  ;  and  it  was  not  till  after  ten 
years'  acquaintance  with  it  that  Mr.  Miller  discovered  it  to  be  richly 
fossiliferous.  The  labors  of  other  ten  years  were  required  to  assign 
to  its  fossils  their  exact  place  in  the  scale. 

Among  the  fossils  discovered  by  our  author,  the  Pterichthys  or 
winged  tish  is  doubtless  the  most  remarkable.  He  had  disinterred  it 
80  early  as  1831,  but  it  was  only  in  1838  that  he  "  introduced  it  to 
the  acquaintance  of  geologists."  It  Avas  not  till  1S31  that  Mr.  Miller 
began  to  receive  assistance  in  his  studies  from  without.  In  the  ap- 
pendix to  Messrs.  Anderson  of  Inverness's  admirable  Guide  to  the 
Hiyhlands  and  Islands  of  Scotland,  which  "  he  perused  with  intense 
interest,"  he  found  the  most  important  information  respecting  the 
geology  of  the  North  of  Scotland  ;  and  during  a  correspondence  with 
the  accomplished  authors  of  that  work,  many  of  his  views  were  cle- 
veloped,  aud  his  difficulties  removed.  In  1838,  he  communicated  to 
Dr.  Malcolmson  of  Madras,  then  in  Paris,  a  drawing  and  description 
of  the  rterichthys.  His  letter  was  submitted  to  Agassiz,  and  subse- 
quently a  restored  drawing  was  communicated  to  the  Elgin  Scientific 
Society.  The  great  naturalist,  as  well  as  the  members  of  the  provincial 
society,  were  surprised  at  the  new  form  of  life  which  Mr.  Miller  had 
disclosed,  and  some  of  them,  no  doubt,  regarded  it  with  a  sceptical  eye. 
"  Not  many  months  after,  however,  a  true  bona  fide  Pterichthys  was 
turned  up  in  one  of  the  newly-discovered  beds  of  Nairnshire."  In  his 
last  visit  to  Scotland,  Agassiz  found  six  species  of  the  Pterichthys,  three 
of  which,  and  the  wings  of  a  fourth,  were  in  Mr.  Miller's  collection. 

This  remarkable  animal  has  less  resemblance  than  any  other  fossil 
of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  to  anything  that  now  exists.  When  first 
brought  to  view  by  the  single  blow  of  a  hammer,  there  appeared  on 
a  ground  of  light- colored  limestone  the  effigy  of  a  creature,  fash- 
ioned apparently  out  of  jet,  with  a  body  covered  with  plates,  two 
powerful  looking  arms  articulated  at  the  shoulders,  a  head  as  en- 


XXU  HUGH    MILLER. 

tirely  lost  in  the  trunk  as  that  of  the  ray,  (or  skate,)  and  a  long 
angular  tail,  equal  in  length  to  a  third  of  the  entire  figure.  Its 
general  resemblance  is  to  the  letter  T,  —  the  upper  part  of  the  ver- 
tical line  being  swelled  out,  and  the  lower  part  ending  in  an  angular 
point,  the  two  horizontal  portions  being,  in  the  oinnion  of  Agassiz," 
organs  of  locomotion.  To  this  remarkable  fossil  M.  Agassiz  has 
given  the  appropriate  name  of  Pterichthys  Milleri.  An  account  of  it, 
accompanied  with  two  fine  specimens,  was  communicated  to  the 
Geological  Section  of  the  British  Association  at  Glasgow,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1840  ;  and  the  most  ample  details,  with  accurate  drawings, 
were  afterwards  published,  in  1841,  in  Mr.  Miller's  first  work.  The 
Old  Red  Sandstone,  which  was  dedicated  to  Sir  Roderick  Murchison, 
who  was  born  on  the  Old  E,ed  Sandstone  of  the  North,  in  the  same 
district  as  Mr.  ^Miller,  and  whose  great  acquirements  and  distin- 
guished labors  are  known  all  over  the  world  among  scientific  men. 
This  admirable  Avork  has  already  passed  through  three  editions. 
From  the  originality  and  accuracy  of  its  descriptions,  and  the  im- 
portance of  the  researches  which  it  contains,  it  has  obtained  for  its 
author  a  high  reputation  among  geologists ;  while  from  tlie  elegance 
and  purity  of  its  style,  and  the  force  and  liveliness  of  its  illustrations, 
it  has  received  the  highest  praise  from  its  more  general  readers.* 

Although  we  have  been  obliged,  from  the  information  which  it 
contains  of  our  author's  early  studies,  to  mention  the  "  Old  lied 
Sandstone"  as  if  it  had  been  his  first  work;  yet  so  early  as  1830, 
after  he  had  made  his  first  fossil  discoveries  at  Cromarty,  he  com- 
posed a  paper  on  the  subject,  (his  first  published  production,)  which 
appeared  as  one  of  the  chapters  of  a  small  legendary  and  descriptive 
work,  entitled  The  Traditional  History  of  Cromarty,  'w'hich.  did  not 
appear  till  1835.  This  chapter,  entitled  "  The  Antiquary  of  the 
AVorld,"  possesses  a  high  degree  of  interest.  After  describing  the 
scene  around  him  in  its  pictorial  aspect,  and  under  the  warm  associ- 
ations, which  link  it  with  existing  life,  he  surveys  it  with  the  cool 
eye  of  an  "antiquary  of  the  world,"  studying  its  once  buried  monu- 
ments, and  decj-phering  the  alphabet  of  plants  and  animals,  the 
hieroglj-phics  which  embosom  the  history  of  past  times  and  of  suc- 

*  Mr.  Miller  is  Ihe  aiitliur  also  of  Scenes  and  Legends  of  the  M'ortk  of  Scotland,  one 
vol.  8vo.  ;  ^  Letter  from  one  of  tlic  Scotch  people  to  the  Right  Ilonoruble  Lord  Broughim 
and  Vaiiz,  on  the  opnions  expressed  by  his  Lirdship  in  the  Aiichtcrarder  Ciise  ;  and  The 
Whi^iriim  of  the  0',d  School,  us  exemplified  in  the  P.ist  History  and  PreiC  -t  Position  of 
'Jie  Church  of  Scollind.  The  second  of  these  works  is  well  characterized  by  Mr 
Gladstone  as  "  an  ible,  elegant,  and  masculine  production." 


HUGH    MILLER.  XXtU 

cesslve  creations.  The  gigantic  Ben  Wevis,  Avith  its  attendant  hills, 
rose  abruptly  to  the  west.  The  distant  peaks  of  Ben  Yaichard  ap- 
peared in  the  south,  and  far  to  the  north  -were  descried  the  lofty  hills 
of  Sutherland,  and  even  the  Ord-hUl  of  Caithness.  Descending 
from  the  towers  of  nature's  lofty  edifice  he  surveys  its  ruins,  its 
broken  sculptures,  and  its  half-defaced  inscriptions,  as  exhibited  in 
certain  Ichthyic  remains  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  which  had 
then  no  name,  and  which  were  luiknown  to  the  most  accomplished 
geologists.  Among  these  he  specially  notices  "  a  confused  bitumi- 
nous-looking mass  that  had  much  the  appearance  of  a  toad  or  frog," 
thus  shadowing  forth  in  the  morning  twilight  the  curious  Pterichthys, 
which  he  was  able  afterwards,  in  better  specimens,  to  exhibit  in  open 
day.  As  we  have  already  referred,  ■with  some  minuteness,  to  the 
fossils  which  our  author  had  at  this  time  discovered  in  the  great 
charnel-house  of  the  old  world,  we  shall  indulge  our  readers  with  a 
specimen  of  the  noble  sentiments  which  they  inspired,  and  of  the 
beautiful  language  in  which  these  sentiments  are  clothed. 

"  But  let  us  quit  this  wonderful  city  of  the  dead,  with  all  its  reclining 
obelisks,  and  all  its  sculptured  tumuli,  the  meinorials  of  a  race  that  exist 
only  in  their  tombs.  And  yet,  ere  we  go,  it  were  well,  perhaps,  to  in- 
dulge in  some  of  those  serious  thoughts  which  we  so  naturally  associate 
with  the  solitary  burying-ground  and  the  mutilated  remains  of  the 
departed.  Let  us  once  more  look  around  'us,  and  say,  whether,  of  all 
men,  the  Geologist  does  not  stand  most  in  need  of  the  Bible,  however 
aiuch  he  may  contemn  it  in  the  pride  of  speculation.  "We  tread  on  the 
remains  of  organized  and  sentient  creatures,  which,  though  more  numer- 
ous at  one  period  than  the  whole  family  of  man,  have  long  since  ceased 
to  exist ;  the  individuals  perished  one  after  one  —  their  remains  served 
only  to  elevate  the  floor  on  which  their  descendants  pursued  the  various 
instincts  of  their  nature,  and  then  sunk,  like  the  others,  to  form  a  still 
higher  layer  of  soil ;  and  now  that  the  whole  race  has  passed  from  the 
earth,  and  we  see  the  animals  of  a  different  tribe  occupying  their  places, 
what  survives  of  them  but  a  mass  of  inert  and  senseless  matter,  never 
again  to  be  animated  by  the  mysterious  spirit  of  vitality  —  that  spirit 
which,  dissipated  in  the  air,  or  diffused  in  the  ocean,  can,  like  the  sweet 
sounds  and  pleasant  odors  of  the  past,  be  neither  gathered  up  nor  re- 
called !  And  0,  how  dark  the  analogy  which  would  lead  us  to  antici- 
pate a  similar  fate  for  ourselves  !  As  individuals,  we  are  but  as  yesterday ; 
to-morrow  we  shall  be  laid  in  our  graves,  and  the  tread  of  the  coming 
generation  shall  be  over  our  heads.  Nay,  have  we  not  seen  a  terrible 
disease  sweep  away,  in  a  few  years,  more  than  eighty  millions  of  the  race 
to  which  we  belong  ;  and  can  we  think  of  this  and  say  that  a  time  may 
not  come  when,  like  the  fossils  of  these  beds,  our  whole  specie*  shall  b<" 
c* 


XXIV  HUGH    MILLER. 

mingled  witli  the  soil,  and  -when,  though  the  sun  may  look  down  in  his 
strength  on  our  pleasant  dwellings-  and  our  green  fields,  there  shall  be 
silence  in  all  our  borders,  and  desolation  in  all  our  gates,  and  we  shall 
have  no  thought  of  that  past  which  it  is  now  our  delight  to  recall,  and  no 
portion  in  that  future  which  it  is  now  our  very  i:ature  to  anticipate. 
Surely  it  is  well  to  believe  that  a  widely  different  destiny  awaits  us  — 
that  the  Go«  who  endowed  us  with  those  wonderful  powers,  which  enable 
us  to  live  in  every  departed  era,  every  coming  period,  has  given  us  to 
possess  these  powers  forever  ;  that  not  only  does  he  number  the  haira 
of  our  heads,  but  that  his  cares  are  extended  to  even  our  very  remains ; 
that  our  very  bones,  instead  of  being  left,  like  the  exuvia  around  us,  to 
form  the  rocks  and  clays  of  a  future  world,  shall,  like  those  in  the  valley 
of  vision,  be  again  clothed  with  muscle  and  sinew,  and  that  our  bodies, 
animated  by  the  warmth  and  vigor  of  life,  shall  again  connect  our  souls 
to  the  matter  existing  around  us,  and  be  obedient  to  every  impulse  of  the 
will.  It  is  surely  no  time,  when  we  walk  amid  the  dark  cemeteries  of  a 
departed  world,  and  see  the  cold  blank  shadows  of  the  tombs  falling 
drearily  athwart  the  way  —  it  is  surely  no  time  to  extinguish  the  light 
given  us  to  shine  so  fully  and  so  cheerfully  on  o\ir  own  proper  path, 
merely  because  its  beams  do  not  enlighten  the  recesses  that  yawn  around 
us.  And  O,  what  more  unworthy  of  reasonable  men  than  to  reject  so 
consoling  a  revelation  on  no  juster  quarrel,  than  when  it  unveils  to  us 
much  of  what  could  not  otherwise  be  known,  and  without  the  knowledge 
of  which  we  could  not  be  other  than  unhappy,  it  leaves  to  the  invigorat- 
ing exercises  of  our  own  powers  whatever,  in  the  wide  circle  of  creation, 
lies  fully  within  their  grasp  !  "  —  The  Antiquary  of  the  World,  pp.  56  -  58. 

The  next  Avork  published  by  Mr.  Miller  was  entitled  "  First  Im- 
pressions of  England  and  its  People,'^*  a  popular  and  interesting 
volume,  which  has  already  gore  through  two  editions,  and  which 
may  be  read  with  equal  interest  by  the  geologist,  the  philanthropist, 
and  the  general  reader.  It  is  full  of  knowledge  and  of  anecdote,  and 
is  written  in  that  attractive  style  which  commands  the  attention  even 
of  the  most  incurious  readers. 

This  delightful  work,  though  only  in  07ie  volume,  is  equal  to  three 
of  the  ordinary  type,  and  cannot  fail  to  be  perused  with  high  gratifi- 
cation by  all  classes  of  readers.  It  treats  of  every  subject  which  is 
presented  to  the  notice  of  an  accomplished  traveller  while  he  visits 
the  great  cities  and  romantic  localities  of  merry  England.  We  know 
of  no  tour  in  England  written  by  a  native  in  which  so  much  pleasant 
reading  and  substantial  instruction  are  combined;  and  though  we 
are  occasionally  stc^opcd  in  a  very  delightful  locality  by  a  precipice 

♦  London,  1847,  pp.  409. 


HUGH    MILLEE.  XXV 

of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  or  frightened  by  a  disinterred  skeleton, 
or  sobered  by  the  burial-service  over  Palaeozoic  graves,  we  soon 
recover  our  equanimity,  and  again  enter  upon  the  suruiy  path  to 
which  our  author  never  fails  to  restore  us. 

Mr.  Miller's  new  work,  the  •'  Footprints  of  the  Creator,"  of  which 
we  publish  now  another  edition,  authorized  by  the  writer,  is  very 
appropriately  dedicated  to  Sir  Philip  Grey  Egerton,  Bart.,  M.  P.  for 
Cheshire  —  a  gentleman  who  possesses  a  magnificent  collection  of 
fossLs,  and  whose  skill  and  acquirements  in  this  department  of  geol- 
ogy is  known  and  appreciated  both  in  Europe  and  America.  The 
work  itself  is  divided  into  fifteen  chapters,  in  which  the  author  treats 
of  the  fossil  geology  of  the  Orkneys,  as  exhibited  in  the  vicinity  of 
Stromness ;  of  the  develojoment  hypothesis,  and  its  consequences ; 
of  the  history  and  structure  of  that  remarkable  fish,  the  Asterolepis ; 
of  the  fishes  of  the  Upper  and  Lower  Silurian  rocks ;  of  the  progress 
of  degradation,  and  its  history ;  of  the  Lamarckian  hypothesis  of  the 
origin  of  plants,  and  its  consequences ;  of  the  Marine  and  Terrestrial 
floras ;  and  of  final  causes,  and  their  bearing  on  geological  history. 
In  the  course  of  these  chapters  Mr.  Miller  discusses  the  development 
hj-pothesis,  or  the  hypothesis  of  natural  law,  as  maintained  by  Lam- 
arck and  by  the  author  of  the  Vestiges  of  Creation,  and  has  sub- 
jected it,  in  its  geological  aspect,  to  the  most  rigorous  examination. 
Driven  by  the  discoveries  of  Lord  Rosse  from  the  domains  of  astron- 
omy, where  it  once  seemed  to  hold  a  plausible  position,  it  might 
have  lingered  with  the  appearance  of  life  among  the  ambigmties  of 
the  Palaeozoic  formations ;  but  Mr.  Miller  has,  with  an  mgenuity  and 
patience  worthy  of  a  better  subject,  stripped  it  even  of  its  semblance 
of  truth,  and  restored  to  the  Creator,  as  Governor  of  the  universe, 
that  power  and  those  functions  which  he  was  supposed  to  have  re- 
signed at  its  birth. 

Having  imposed  upon  himself  the  task  of  examining  in  detail  the 
various  fossiliferous  formations  of  Scotland,  our  author  extended  his 
inquiries  into  the  mainland  of  Orkney,  and  resided  for  some  time  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  busy  seaport  town  of  Stromness,  as  a  central  point 
from  which  the  structure  of  the  Orkney  group  of  islands  could  be 
most  advantageously  studied.  Like  that  of  Caithness,  the  geology 
of  these  islands  owes  its  principal  interest  to  the  immense  develop- 
ment of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  formation,  and  to  the  singular 
abundance  of  its  vertebrate  fossils.  Though  the  Orkneys  contain 
only  the  third  part  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  which,  but  a  few  years 
ago,  was  supposed  to  be  the  least  productive  in  fossils  of  any  of  the 


XXVI  HUGH    MILLER. 

geological  formations,  yet  it  furnishes,  according  to  Mr.  IkliUer,  more 
fossil  tish  than  every  other  geological  system  in  England,  Scotland, 
and  Wales,  from  the  Coid  Measures  to  the  Chalk,  inclusive.  It  is,  in 
short,  "  the  land  of  fish,"  and  "  could  supply  with  ichthyolites,  by 
the  ton  and  by  the  ship-load,  the  museums  of  the  world."  Its  vari- 
ous deposits,  with  the  curious  organisms  which  they  inclose,  have 
been  upheaved  from  their  original  position  against  a  granitic  axis, 
about  six  miles  long  and  one  broad,  "  forming  the  great  back-bone 
of  the  western  district  of  the  Island  Pomona ;  and  on  this  granitic 
axis,  fast  jambed  in  between  a  steep  hill  and  the  sea,  stands  the  town 
of  Stromness." 

The  mass  or  pile  of  strata  thus  uplifted  is  described  by  Mr.  Miller 
as  a  three-barred  pyramid  resting  on  its  granite  base,  exhibiting 
three  broad  tiers  —  red,  black,  and  gray  —  sculptured  with  the  hier- 
ogly25hics  in  which  its  history  is  recorded.  The  great  conglomerate 
base  on  which  it  rests,  covering  from  10,000  to  15,000  square  miles, 
from  the  depth  of  from  100  to  400  feet,  consists  of  rough  sand  and 
water- worn  pebbles  ;  and  above  this  have  been  deposited  successive 
strata  of  mud,  equal  in  height  to  the  highest  of  our  mountains,  now 
containing  the  remains  of  millions  and  tens  of  millions  of  fish  which 
had  perished  in  some  sudden  and  mysterious  catastrophe. 

In  the  examination  of  the  different  beds  of  the  three-barred  for- 
mation, our  author  discovered  a  well-marked  bone,  like  a  petrified 
large  roofing  nail,  in  a  grayish-colored  layer  of  hard  flag,  about  100 
yards  over  the  granite,  and  about  160  feet  over  the  upper  stratum 
of  the  conglomerate.  This  singular  bone,  which  Mr.  Miller  has  rep- 
resented in  a  figure,  was  probably  the  oldest  vertebrate  organism 
yet  discovered  in  Orkney.  It  was  b\  inches  long,  1^  inches  across 
the  head,  and  3-lOths  of  an  inch  thick  in  the  stem,  and  formed  a 
characteristic  feature  of  the  Asterolepis,  as  yet  the  most  gigantic  of 
the  ganoid  fishes,  and  probably  one  of  the  first  of  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone. In  his  former  researches,  o\ir  author  had  found  that  all  of  the 
many  hundred  ichthyoHtes  which  he  had  disinterred  from  the  Lower 
Old  lied  Sandstone  were  comparatively  of  a  small  size,  while  those  in 
the  Upper  Old  Red  were  of  great  bulk ;  and  hence  he  had  naturally 
inferred,  that  vertebrate  hfe  had  increased  towards  the  close  of  the 
system  —  that,  in  short,  it  began  with  an  age  of  dwarfs,  and  ended 
with  an  age  of  giants ;  but  he  had  thus  greatly  erred,  like  the  sup- 
porters of  the  development  system,  in  founding  positive  conclusions 
on  merely  negative  evidence ;  for  here,  at  the  very  base  of  the  sys- 
tem, where  no  dwarfs  were  to  be  found,  he  had  discovered  one  of  the 
most  colossal  of  its  giants. 


HUGH    MILLER.  XXVll 

After  this  most  important  discovery,  Mr.  Miller  extended  his  in- 
quiries easterly  for  several  miles  along  the  bare  and  unwooded  Lake 
of  Stennis,  about  fourteen  miles  in  circumference,  and  divided  into 
an  upper  and  lower  sheet  of  water  by  two  long  promontories  jutting 
out  from  each  side  and  nearly  meeting  in  the  middle.  The  sta  enters 
this  lake  through  the  openings  of  a  long  rustic  bridge,  and  hence  the 
lower  division  of  the  lake  "  is  salt  in  its  nether  reaches,  and  brack- 
ish in  its  upper  ones ;  while  the  higher  division  is  merely  brackish 
in  its  nether  reaches,  and  fresh  enough  in  its  upper  ones  to  be  pota- 
ble." The  fauna  and  flora  of  the  lake  are  therefore  of  a  mixed  char- 
acter, the  marine  and  fresh  water  animals  having  each  their  own 
reaches,  though  each  kind  makes  certain  encroachments  on  the  prov- 
ince of  the  other. 

In  the  marine  and  lacustrine  floras  of  the  lake,  Mr.  Miller  observed 
changes  still  more  palpable.  At  the  entrance  of  the  sea,  the  Fucus 
nodosus  and  Fucus  vesiculosus  flourish  in  their  proper  form  and  mag- 
nitude. A  little  farther  on  in  the  lake,  the  F.  nodosus  disajjpears, 
and  the  F.  vesiculosus,  though  continuing  to  exist  for  mile  after 
mile,  grows  dwarfish  and  stunted,  and  finally  disappears,  giving 
place  to  rushes  and  other  aquatic  grasses,  tiU  the  lacustrine  has  en- 
tii-ely  displaced  the  marine  flora.  From  these  two  importmit  facts, 
the  existence  of  the  fragment  of  Asterolepis  in  the  lower  flagstones 
of  the  Orkneys,  and  of  the  "  curiously  mixed  semi-manne  semi- 
lacustrine  vegetation  in  the  Loch  of  Stennis,"  which  our  author 
regards  as  bearing  directly  on  the  development  hypothesis,  he  takes 
occasion  to  submit  that  hypothesis  to  a  severe  examination,  and  to 
point  out  its  consequences  —  its  incompatibility  with  the  great  truths 
of  morality  and  revealed  religion.  According  to  Professor  Oken, 
one  of  the  ablest  supporters  of  the  development  theory,  "  There  are 
two  kinds  of  generation  in  the  world,  the  creation  proper,  and  the 
propagation  that  is  sequent  thereon,  or  the  original  and  secondary 
generation.  Consequently,  no  organism  has  been  created  of  larger 
sizH  than  an  infusorial  point.  No  organism  is,  or  ever  has  been 
created,  which  is  not  microscopic.  Whatever  is  large  has  not  been 
created,  but  developed.  Man  has  not  been  created,  but  developed." 
Hence  it  follows  that  during  the  great  geological  period,  when  race 
after  race  was  destroyed,  and  new  forms  of  life  called  into  being, 
"nature  had  been  pregnant  with  the  human  race,"  and  that  immor- 
tal and  intellectual  Man  is  but  the  development  of  the  Brute  — 
itself  the  development  of  some  monad  or  mollusc,  which  has  been 
smitten  into  life  by  the  action  of  electricity  upon  a  j)ortion  of  gelat- 
inous matter. 


XXVIU  HUGH    MILLER. 

K  the  development  theory  be  true,  "  the  early  fossils  ought  to  be 
very  small  in  siz5,"  and  "very  low  in  organization."  In  the  earliest 
strata  we  ought  to  find  only  "  mere  embryos  and  foetuses  ;  and  if  we 
find  instead  the  full-grown  and  mature,  then  must  we  hold  that  the 
testimony  of  geology  is  not  only  not  in  accordance  with  the  theory, 
but  in  positive  opposition  to  it."  Having  laid  this  do^vn  as  the 
principle  by  which  the  question  is  to  be  decided,  our  author  proceeds 
to  consider  "  what  axe  X\i.e  facts."  The  Astvrolepis  oi  Stiomness  seeirts 
to  be  the  oldest  organism  yet  discovered  in  the  most  ancient  geologi- 
cal system  of  Scotland,  in  which  vertebrate  remains  occur.  It  is 
probably  the  oldest  Ccelacanth  that  the  world  has  yet  produced,  for 
there  is  no  certain  trace  of  this  family  in  the  great  Silurian  system, 
which  lies  underneath,  and  on  which,  according  to  ovir  existing 
knowledge,  organic  existence  first  began.  "  How,  then,"  asks  Mr. 
Miller,  "  on  the  two  relevant  points  —  bulk  and  organization  —  does 
it  answer  to  the  demands  of  the  development  hypothesis  ?  Was  it  a 
mere  foetus  of  the  finny  tribe,  of  minute  size  and  imperfect  embry- 
onic faculty  ?  Or  was  it  of,  at  least,  the  ordinary  bulk,  and,  for  its 
class,  of  the  average  organization  ? " 

In  order  to  answer  these  questions,  Mr.  Miller  proceeds  in  his  third 
chapter  to  give  the  recent  history  of  the  Asterolepis ;  in  his  fourth, 
to  ascertain  the  cerebral  development  of  the  earlier  vertebrata ;  and 
in  his  ffih  chapter  to  describe  the  structure,  bulk,  and  aspect  of  the 
Asterolepis.  In  the  rocks  of  Russia  certain  fossil  remains  had  been 
long  ago  discovered,  of  such  a  singular  nature  as  to  have  perplexed 
Lamarck  and  other  naturalists.  Their  true  place  among  fishes  was 
subsequently  ascertained  by  M.  Eichwald,  a  living  naturalist ;  and 
Sir  Roderick  Murchison  found  that  they  were  Ichthyolites  of  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone.  Agassiz  gave  them  the  name  of  Clielonichthys  ; 
but  in  consequence  of  very  fine  specimens  having  been  found  in  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone  of  Russia,  which  Professor  Asmus  of  Dorpat 
Bent  to  the  British  Sluseum,  and  which  exhibited  star-like  markings, 
he  abandoned  his  name  of  Chelonichthys,  and  adopted  that  of  Aster- 
olepis, or  star- scale,  which  Eichwald  had  proposed.  Many  points, 
however,  respecting  this  curious  fossil  remained  to  be  determined, 
and  it  was  fortunate  for  science  that  Mr.  Miller  was  enabled  to  ac- 
complish this  object  by  means  of  a  variety  of  excellent  specimens 
which  he  received  from  Mr.  Robert  Dick,  "  an  intelligent  tradesman 
of  Thurso,  one  of  those  working  men  of  Scotland,  of  active  curiosity 
and  well  developed  intellect,  that  give  character  and  standing  to  the 
est."  Agassiz  had  inferred,  from  very  imperfect  fragments,  that 
he  Asterolepis  was  a  strongly-helmed  fish  of  the  Caelacanths,  or  hollow 


HUGH    MILLEK.  XXIX 

Bpine  family  —  that  it  -was  probably  a  flat-beaded  animal,  and  that 
the  discovery  of  a  head  or  of  a  jaw  might  prove  that  the  genus 
Dendrodus  did  not  diifer  from  it.  All  these  conjectures  were  com- 
pletely confirmed  by  Mr.  ililler,  after  a  careful  examination  of  the 
specimens  of  Mr.  Dick. 

Before  proceeding  to  describe  the  structure  of  the  gigantic  Aster- 
olepis,  Mr.  Miller  devotes  a  long  and  elaborate  chapter  to  the  subject 
of  the  cerebral  development  of  the  earlier  vertebrata,  in  order  to 
ascertain  in  what  manner  their  true  brains  were  lodged,  and  to  dis- 
cover the  modification  which  the  cranium,  as  their  protecting  box, 
received  in  subsequent  periods.  This  inquiry,  which  he  has  con- 
ducted with  great  skill  and  ability,  is  not  only  highly  interesting  in 
itself,  but  will  be  found  to  have  a  direct  bearing  on  the  great  ques- 
tion which  it  is  his  object  to  discuss  and  decide. 

The  facts  and  reasonings  contained  in  this  chapter  will,  we  doubt 
not,  shake  to  its  very  base  the  bold  theory  of  Professor  Oken,  which 
has  been  so  generally  received  abroad,  and  which  is  beginning  to 
find  supporters  even  among  the  solid  thinkers  of  our  ovra  country. 
In  the  his  of  1818,  Professor  Lorenz  Oken  has  given  the  following 
account  of  the  hypothesis  to  which  we  allude.  ••  In  August,  1806," 
says  he,  "  I  made  a  journey  over  the  Ilartz.  I  slid  down  through 
the  wood  on  the  south  side,  and  straight  before  me,  at  my  very  feet, 
lay  a  most  beautiful  blanched  skull  of  a  hind.  -I  picked  it  up,  turned 
it  round,  regarded  it  intensely ;  —  the  thing  was  done.  ♦  It  is  a  ver- 
tebral column,'  struck  me  like  a  flood  of  lightning,  '  to  the  marrow 
and  bone ; '  and  since  that  time  the  skull  has  been  regarded  as  a 
vertebral  column." 

This  remarkable  hypothesis  was  at  first  received  with  enthusiasm 
by  the  naturalists  of  Germany,  and,  among  others,  by  Agassiz,  who, 
from  grounds  not  of  a  geological  kind,  has  more  recently  rejected  it. 
It  has  baen  adopted  by  our  distinguished  countryman,  Professoi 
Owen,  and  forms  the  central  idea  in  his  lately  published  and  inge- 
nious work  "  On  the  Nature  of  Limbs."  The  conclusion  at  which  ho 
arrives,  that  the  fore-limbs  of  the  vertebrata  are  the  ribs  of  the  oc- 
cipital bone  or  vertebra  set  free,  and  (in  all  the  vertebrata  higher  in 
the  scale  than  the  ordinary  fishes)  carried  do^^Ti  along  the  vertebral 
column  by  a  sort  of  natural  dislocation,  is  a  deduction  from  the  idea 
that  stai-tled  Professor  Oken  in  the  forest  of  the  Ilartz.  Whatever 
support  this  hyj^othesis  might  have  expected  from  Geology,  has  been 
struck  from  beneath  it  by  tk.*  remarkable  chapter  of  Mr,  Miller's 
work ;  and  though  anatomists  may  for  a  while  maintain  it  tmder  the 


XXX  HTJGH    MILLER. 

influence  of  so  high  an  authority  as  Professor  0\\en,  tvo  are  much 
mistaken  if  it  ever  forms  a  part  of  the  creed  of  the  geologist.  Mr. 
Miller  indeed  has,  by  a  most  skilful  examination  of  the  heads  of  the 
earliest  vertebrata  known  to  geologists,  proved  that  the  hypothesis 
derives  no  support  from  the  structure  which  they  exhibit,  and 
Agassiz  has  even  upon  general  principles  rejected  it  as  untenable. 

Mr.  Miller's  next  chapter  on  the  structure,  bulk,  and  aspect  of  the 
Asterolepis,  is,  like  that  which  precedes  it,  the  work  of  a  master, 
evincing  the  highest  powers  of  observation  and  analysis.  Its  size  in 
the  larger  specimens  must  have  been  very  great ;  and  from  a  com- 
parison of  the  proportion  of  the  head  in  the  Ganoids  to  the  length 
of  the  body,  which  is  sometimes  as  one  to  five,  or  one  to  six,  or  one 
to  six  and  a  half,  or  even  one  to  seven,  our  author  concludes  that  the 
total  length  of  the  specimens  in  his  possession  must  have  been  at 
least  eight  feet  three  inches,  or  from  nine  feet  nine  to  nine  feet  ten 
inches.  The  remains  of  an  Asterolepis  found  by  Mr.  Dick  at  Thurso, 
indicate  a  length  of  from  twelve  feet  five  to  thirteen  feet  eight  inches ; 
and  one  of  the  Russian  specimens  of  Professor  Asmus  must  have 
been  from  eighteen  to  twenty-three  feet  long.  "  Hence,"  says  Mr. 
Miller,  "in  the  not  unimportant  circumstance  of  size  —  the  most 
ancient  Coclacanths  yet  known,  instead  of  taking  their  places  agree- 
bly  to  the  demands  of  the  development  hypothesis  among  the  sprats, 
sticklebacks,  and  minnows  of  their  class,  took  their  place  among  its 
huge  basking  sharks,  gigantic  sturgeons,  and  bulky  swordfishes. 
They  were  giants,  not  dwarfs."  Again,  judging  by  the  analogies 
which  its  structure  exhibits  to  that  of  fishes  of  the  existing  period, 
the  Asterolepis  must  have  been  a  fish  high  in  the  scale  of  organi- 
zation. 

A  specimen  of  Asterolepis,  discovered  by  Mr.  Dick,  among  the 
Thurso  rocks,  and  sent  to  Mr.  Miller,  exhibited  the  singular  phe- 
nomenon of  a  quantity  of  thick  tar  lying  beneath  it,  which  stuck  to 
the  fingers  when  lifting  the  pieces  of  rock.  "  What  had  been  once 
the  nerves,  muscles,  and  blood  of  this  ancient  Ganoid,  still  lay  under 
its  bones,"  a  phenomenon  which  our  author  had  previously  seen  be- 
neath the  body  of  a  poor  suicide,  whose  grave  in  a  sandy  bank  had 
been  laid  open  by  the  encroachments  of  a  river,  the  sand  beneath  it 
having  been  "  consolidated  into  a  dark  colored  pitchy  mass,"  extend- 
ing a  full  yard  beneath  the  body.  In  like  manner,  the  animal  juices 
of  the  Asterolepis  had  preserved  its  remains,  by  "  the  pervading  bit- 
umen, greatly  more  conservative  in  its  effects  than  the  oil  and  gum 
of  an  old  Egyptian  undertaker."     The  bones,  though  black  as  pitch, 


HUGH    MILLEB.  XXXI 

retained  to  a  considerable  degree  the  peculiar  qualities  of  the  original 
Bubstance,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  adipocire  of  wet  burying- 
grounds  preserves  fresh  and  green  the  bones  which  it  encloses. 

In  support  of  his  anti-development  views,  Mr.  Miller  devotes  his 
next  and  sixth  chapter  to  the  recent  history,  order,  and  size  of  the 
fishes  of  the  Upper  and  Lower  Silurian  rocks.  Of  these  ancient 
formations,  the  bone  bed  of  the  Upper  Ludlow  rocks  is  the  only  one 
which,  besides  defensive  spines  of  fish,  contains  teeth,  fragments  of 
jaws,  and  shagreen  points,  whereas,  in  the  inferior  deposits,  defensive 
spines  alone  are  found.  The  species  discovered  by  Professor  Phillips, 
in  the  Wenlock  shale,  were  microscopic ;  and  the  author  of  the  Ves- 
tiges took  advantage  of  this  insulated  fact  to  support  his  views,  by 
pronouncing  the  little  creatures  to  which  the  species  belonged  as 
the  foetal  embryos  of  their  class.  Mr.  Miller  has,  however,  even  on 
this  ground,  defeated  his  opponent.  By  comparing  the  defensive 
spines  of  the  Onchus  Murchisoni  of  the  Upper  Ludlow  bed  with 
those  of  a  recent  Spinax  Acanthias,  or  dog-fish,  and  of  the  Cestracion 
Phillippi,  or  Port  Jackson  shai'k,  he  arrives  at  the  conclusion,  that 
the  fishes  to  which  the  species  belonged  must  be  all  of  considerable 
size ;  and  in  the  foUo^ving  chapter  on  the  high  standing  of  the  Placoids, 
he  shewsf  that  the  same  early  fishes  were  high  h\  intelligence  and 
organization. 

In  his  ninth  chapter  on  the  History  and  Progress  of  Degradation, 
our  author  enters  upon  a  new  and  interesting  subject.  The  object 
of  it  is  to  determine  the  proper  ground  on  which  the  standing  of  the 
earlier  vertebrata  should  be  decided,  namely,  the  test  of  what  he 
terms  homological  symmetry  of  organization.  In  nature  there  are 
monster  families,  just  as  there  are  in  families  monster  indi\iduals  — 
men  without  feet,  hands,  or  eyes,  or  with  them  in  a  wrong  place  — 
sheep  with  legs  growing  from  their  necks,  ducklings  with  wings  on 
their  haunches,  and  dogs  and  cats  with  more  legs  than  they  require. 
"We  have  thus,  according  to  our  author —  \,  monstrosity  through  defect 
of  parts  ;  2,  monstrosity  through  redundancy  of  parts  ;  and  3,  monstros- 
ity through  displacement  of  parts.  This  last  species,  united  in  some 
cases  with  the  other  two,  our  author  finds  curiously  exemplified  in 
the  geological  history  of  the  fish,  which  he  considers  better  known 
than  that  of  any  other  division  of  the  vertebrata ;  and  he  is  con- 
vinced that  it  is  from  a  survey  of  the  progress  of  degradation  in  the 
great  Ichthyic  division  that  the  standing  of  the  kingly  fishes  of  the 
earlier  periods  is  to  be  determined. 

In  the  e'rliest  vertebrate  period,  namely,  the  Silurian,  our  authoi 

D 


3CXX11  HTIGH   MILLER. 

Bhews  that  the  fishes  were  homologically  symmetrical  in  their  organ 
ization,  as  exhibited  in  the  Placoids.  In  the  second  great  Ichthyic 
period,  that  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  he  finds  the  first  example  in 
the  class  of  fishes  oi  monstrosity,  by  displacement  of  parts.  In  all  the 
Ganoids  of  the  period,  there  is  the  same  departure  from  symmetry 
as  would  take  place  in  man  if  his  neck  was  annihilated,  and  the 
arms  stuck  to  the  back  of  the  head.  In  the  Coccosteus  and  Pter- 
ichthys  of  the  same  period,  he  finds  the  first  example  of  degradation 
thrcugh  defect,  the  former  resembling  a  human  monster  without  hands, 
and  the  latter  one  without  feet.  After  ages  and  centuries  have 
passed  away,  and  then  after  the  termination  of  the  Palaeozoic  period, 
a  change  takes  place  in  the  formation  of  the  fish  tail.  "  Other  ages 
and  centuries  pass  away,  during  which  the  reptile  class  attains  to  its 
fullest  development  in  point  of  size,  organization,  and  number ;  and 
then,  after  the  times  of  the  cretaceous  deposits  have  begun,  we  find 
yet  another  remarkable  monstrosity  of  displacement  introduced 
among  all  the  fishes  of  one  very  numerous  order,  and  among  na  in- 
considerable proportion  of  the  fishes  of  another.  In  the  newly- 
introduced  Ctenoids  {Acanthoj]te7-ygii,)  and  in  those  families  of  the 
Cycloids  which  Cuvier  erected  into  the  order  Malacopterygii  sub- 
brachiati,  the  hinder  limbs  are  brought  forward  and  stuck  on  to  the 
base  of  the  previously  misplaced  fore  limbs.  All  the  four  limbs,  by 
a  strange  monstrosity  of  displacement,  are  crowded  into  the  place 
of  the  extinguished  neck.  And  such,  in  the  present  day,  is  the 
prevalent  type  among  fishes.  Monstrosity  through  defect  is  also 
found  to  increase ;  so  that  the  snake-like  apoda,  or  feet- wanting 
fishes,  form  a  numerous  order,  some  of  whose  genera  are  devoid,  as 
in  the  common  eels  and  the  congers,  of  only  the  hinder  limbs,  while 
in  others,  as  in  the  genera  Murana  and  Synbranchus,  both  hinder  and 
fore-limbs  are  wanting."  From  these  and  other  facts,  our  author 
concludes  that  as  in  existing  fishes  we  find  many  more  proofs  of  the 
monstrosity,  both  from  displacement  and  defect  of  parts,  than  in  all 
the  other  three  cla.sses  of  the  vertebrata,  and  as  these  monstrosities 
did  not  appear  early,  but  late,  "the  progress  of  the  race  as  a  whole, 
though  it  still  retains  not  a  few  of  the  higher  forms,  has  been  a 
progress  not  of  development  from  the  low  to  the  high,  but  of  degra- 
dation from  the  high  to  the  low."  An  extreme  example  of  the 
degradation  of  distortion,  superadded  to  that  of  displacement,  may 
be  seen  in  the  flounder,  plaice,  halibut,  or  turbot,  —  fishes  of  a  family 
of  which  there  is  no  trace  in  the  earlier  periods.  The  creature  is 
twisted  half  round  and  laid  on  its  side.     The  tail,  too,  is  horizontal 


HtTGH    MILLER.  XXXIU 

Half  tlie  features  of  its  head  are  t^-isted  to  one  side,  and  the  other 
half  to  the  other,  while  its  wry  mouth  is  in  keeping  with  its  squint 
eyes.  One  jaw  is  straight,  and  the  other  like  a  bow ;  and  while  one 
contains  from  four  to  six  teeth,  the  other  contains  from  thirty  to 
thirtxj-jive. 

Aided  by  facts  like  these,  an  ingenious  theorist  might,  as  our  au- 
thor remarks,  "  get  up  as  unexceptionable  a  theory  of  degradation 
as  of  development."  But  however  this  may  be,  the  principle  of 
degradation  actually  exists,  and  "  the  history  of  its  progress  in  crea- 
tion bears  directly  against  the  assumption  that  the  earlier  vcrtcbrata 
were  of  a  lower  type  than  the  vertebrata  of  the  same  Ichthyic  class 
which  exist  now." 

In  his  next  and  tenth  chapter,'  our  author  controverts  with  his 
usual  power  the  argument  in  favor  of  the  development  hypothesis, 
drawn  from  the  predominance  of  the  Brachiopods  among  the  Silurian 
Molluscs.  The  existence  of  the  highly  organized  Cephalopods,  in 
the  same  formation,  not  only  neutralizes  this  argument,  but  author- 
izes the  conclusion  that  an  animal  of  a  very  high  order  of  organiza- 
tion existed  in  the  earliest  formation.  It  is  of  no  consequence 
whether  the  Cephalopods,  or  the  Brachiopods  were  most  numerous. 
Had  there  been  only  one  cuttle  fish  in  the  Silurian  seas,  and  a  mil- 
lion of  Brachiopods,  the  fact  would  equally  have  overturned  the  de- 
velopment system. 

In  the  same  chapter,  Mr.  Miller  treats  of  the  geological  history  of 
the  Fossil  flora,  which  has  been  pressed  into  the  service  of  the  de- 
velopment hypothesis.  On  the  authority  of  Adolphc  Brongniart,  it 
was  maintained  that,  previous  to  the  age  of  the  Lias,  "  Nature  had 
failed  to  achieve  a  tree  —  and  that  the  rich  vegetation  of  the  Coal 
Measures  had  been  exclusively  composed  of  magnificent  immaturities 
of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  of  gigantic  ferns  and  club  mosses,  that 
attained  to  the  size  of  forest  trees,  and  of  thickets  of  the  swamp- 
loving  horse-tail  family  of  plants."  True  exogenous  trees,  however, 
do  exist  of  vast  size,  and  in  great  numbers,  in  all  the  coal-fields  of 
our  own  countrj-,  as  has  been  proved  by  Mr.  Miller.  Nay,  he  him- 
self discovered  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  Lignite,  w'^hich  is  proved 
to  have  formed  part  of  a  true  gymnospermous  tree,  represented  by 
the  pines  of  Europe  and  America,  or  more  probably,  as  Mr.  Miller 
believes,  by  the  Araucarians  of  Chili  and  New  Zealand.  This  im- 
portant discovery  is  pregnant  with  instruction.  The  ancient  Conifer 
must  have  waved  its  green  foliage  over  dry  land,  and  it  is  not  prob- 
s'gle  that  it  was  the  only  tree  in  the  primeval  forest.     "  The  ship 


XXXIV  HITGH    MILLER. 

carpenter,"  as  our  author  observes,  "might  have  hopefully  taken 
axe  in  hand  to  explore  the  woods  for  some  such  stately  pine  as  the 
one  described  by  ^Milton,  — 

'Hewn  on  Norwegian  hills,  to  be  the  mast 
Of  some  great  admiral.' " 

Viewing  this  olive  leaf  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  as  not  at  all  devoid 
of  poetry,  our  author  invites  us  to  a  voyage  from  the  latest  forma- 
tion up  to  the  first  zone  of  the  Silurian  formation,  —  thus  passing 
from  ancient  to  stUl  more  ancient  scenes  of  being,  and  finding,  as  at 
the  commencement  of  our  voyage,  a  graceful  intermixture  of  land 
and  water,  continent,  river,  and  sea. 

But  though  the  existence  of  a  true  Placoid,  a  real  vertebrated  fish, 
in  the  Cambrian  limestone  of  Bala,  and  of  true  wood  at  the  base  of 
the  Old  Ked  Sandstone,  are  utterly  incompatible  with  the  develop- 
ment hj'pothesis,  its  supporters,  thus  driven  to  the  wall,  may  take 
shelter  under  the  vague  and  unquestioned  truth  that  the  lower 
plants  and  animals  preceded  the  higher,  and  that  the  order  of  crea- 
tion was  fish,  reptiles,  birds,  mammalia,  quadrumana,  and  man. 
From  this  resource,  too,  our  author  has  cut  off  his  opponents,  and 
proceeds  to  show  that  such  an  order  of  creation,  "  at  once  wonderful 
and  beautiful,"  does  not  afford  even  the  slightest  presumption  in 
favor  of  the  hj-pothesis  which  it  is  adduced  to  support. 

This  argument  is  carried  on  in  a  popular  and  amusing  dialogue  in 
the  eleve7ith  chapter.  Mr.  Miller  shows,  in  the  clearest  manner,  that 
"  superposition  is  not  parental  relation,"  or  that  an  organism  lying 
above  another  gives  us  no  ground  for  believing  that  the  lower  or- 
ganism was  the  parent  of  the  higher.  The  theorist,  however,  looks 
only  at  those  phases  of  truth  which  are  in  unison  with  his  own 
views ;  and,  when  truth  presents  no  such  favorable  aspect,  he  finally 
wraps  himself  up  in  the  folds  of  ignorance  and  ambiguity  —  the 
winding-sheet  of  error  refuted  and  exposed.  AVe  have  not  yet  pen- 
etrated, says  he,  in  feeble  accents,  to  the  formations  which  represent 
the  dawn  of  being,  and  the  simplest  organism  may  yet  be  detected 
beneath  the  lowest  fossiliferous  rocks.  This  undoubtedly  may  be, 
and  Sir  Charles  Lyell  and  Mr.  Leonard  Horner  are  of  opiiiion  that 
such  rocks  may  yet  be  discovered ;  while  Sir  Roderick  Murchison 
and  Professor  Sedgwick  and  Mr.  Miller  are  of  an  opposite  opinion 
But  even  were  such  rocks  discovered  to-morrow,  it  would  not  follow 
that  their  orgamsms  gave  the  least  support  to  the  development  hy- 


HTTGH     MILLER.  XXXV 

pothesis.  In  fhe  j'ear  1837,  -when  fishes  were  not  discovered  in  the 
Upper  Silurian  rocks,  the  theorist  would  have  rightly  predicted  the 
existence  of  lower  fossiliferous  beds ;  but  when  they  are  discovered, 
and  their  fossils  examined,  they  furnish  the  strongest  argument  that 
could  be  desired  against  the  theory  they  were  expected  to  sustain. 
This  fact,  no  doubt,  is  so  far  in  favor  of  the  supposition  that  there 
may  be  still  lower  fossil-bearing  strata  ;  but,  as  Mr.  Miller  observes, 
♦'  The  pjTamid  of  organized  existence,  as  it  ascends  into  the  by-past 
eternity,  inclines  sensibly  towards  its  apex, — that  apex  of  'begin- 
ning '  on  which,  on  far  other  than  geological  grounds,  it  is  our 
privilege  to  believe.  The  broad  base  of  the  superstructure  planted 
on  the  existing  scene  stretches  across  the  entire  scale  of  life,  animal 
and  vegetable  ;  but  it  contracts  as  it  rises  into  the  past ;  —  man,  — 
the  quadrumana,  —  the  quadrupedal  man,  —  the  bird  and  the  rep- 
tile are  each  in  succession  struck  from  off  its  breadth,  till  we  at 
length  see  it  with  the  vertebrata,  represented  by  only  the  fish,  nar- 
rowing as  it  were  to  a  point ;  and  though  the  clouds  of  the  upper 
region  may  hide  its  apex,  we  infer,  from  the  declination  of  its  sides, 
that  it  cannot  penetrate  much  farther  into  the  profound." 
•  In  our  author's  next  chapter,  the  twelfth  of  the  series,  he  proceeds 
to  examine  the  "  Lamarckian  hj'pothesis  of  the  origin  of  plants,  and 
its  consequences." 

In  his  thirteenth  chapter,  on  "  The  two  Floras,  marine  and  terres- 
trial," he  has  shown  that  all  our  experience  is  opposed  to  the  opin- 
ion, that  the  one  has  been  transmuted  into  the  other.  If  the  marine 
had  been  converted  into  terrestrial  vegetation,  we  ought  to  have,  in 
the  lyake  of  Stennis,  for  example,  plants  of  an  intermediate  charac- 
ter between  the  algae  of  the  sea,  and  the  monocotyledons  of  the 
lake.  But  no  such  transition-plants  are  found.  The  algae,  as  our 
author  observes,  become  dwarfish  and  ill-developed.  They  cease  to 
exist  as  the  water  becomes  fresher,  "  until  at  length  we  find,  instead 
of  the  brown,  rootless,  flowerless  fucoids  and  confervae  of  the  oceaTi, 
the  green,  rooted,  flowering  flags,  rushes,  and  aquatic  grasses  of  the 
fresh  water.  Many  thousands  of  years  have  failed  to  originate  u 
single  intermediate  plant."  The  same  conclusion  may  be  drawn 
from  the  character  of  the  vegetation  along  the  extensive  shores  of 
Britain  and  Ireland.  No  botanist  has  ever  found  a  single  plant  in 
the  transition  state. 

The  fourteenth  chapter  of  the  "  Footprints"  will  be  perused  with 
great  interest  by  the  general  reader.     It  is  a  powerful  and  argumen- 
tative exposure   of  the  development  hypothesis,  and  of  the  mannei 
■D* 


XXXVl  HUGH     MILLER. 

in  which  the  subject  has  been  treated  in  the  "  Yestiges."  Whether 
■we  consider  it  in  its  nature,  in  its  history,  or  in  the  character  of  the 
intellects  with  whom  it  originated,  or  by  whom  it  has  been  received 
and  supported,  Mr.  Miller  has  shown  that  it  has  nothing  to  recom- 
mend it.  It  existed  as  a  -v^ild  dream  before  Geology  had  any  being 
as  a  science.  It  was  broached  more  than  a  century  ago  by  De 
Maillet,  who  knew  nothing  of  the  geology  even  of  his  day.  In  a 
translation  of  his  TeUiamed,  published  in  1750,  Mr.  Miller  finds  very 
nearly  the  same  account  given  of  the  origin  of  plants  and  animals, 
as  that  in  the  '•  Vestiges,"  and  in  which  the  sea  is  described  as  that 
"  great  and  fruitful  womb  of  nature,  in  which  organization  and  life 
first  begin."  Lamarck,  though  a  skUful  botanist  and  conchologist, 
was  unacquainted  with  geology  ;  and  as  he  first  published  his  devel- 
oi^ment  h^^pothcsis  in  1802,  (an  hypothesis  identical  with  that  of  the 
•'  Vestiges,")  it  is  probable  that  he  was  not  then  a  very  skilful  zoolo- 
gist. N  or  has  Professor  Oken  any  higher  claims  to  geological  acquire- 
ments. He  confesses  that  he  wrote  the  first  edition  of  his  work  in 
a  kind  of  inspiration !  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  estimate  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  inspiring  idol  that  announced  to  the  German  sage  that 
the  globe  was  a  vast  crystal,  a  httle  flawed  in  the  facets,  and  that 
quartz,  feldspar,  and  mica,  the  three  constituents  of  granite,  were 
the  hail-drops  of  heavy  showers  of  stone  that  fell  into  the  original 
ocean,  and  accumulated  into  rocks  at  the  bottom  ! 

Such  is  the  unscientific  parentage  of  the  theories  promulgated  in 
the  "  Vestiges."  But  the  author  of  this  work  appeals  in  the  first 
instance  to  science.  Astronomy,  Geology,  Botany,  and  Zoology  are 
called  upon  to  give  evidence  in  his  favor ;  but  the  astronomer,  geol- 
ogist, botanist,  and  the  zoologist,  all  refuse  him  their  testimony,  deny 
his  premises,  and  reject  his  results.  "  It  is  not,"  as  Mr.  Miller  hap- 
pily observes,  '•  the  illiberal  religionist  that  casts  him  off.  It  is  the 
inductive  philosopher."  Science  addresses  him  in  the  language  of 
the  possessed  :  "  The  astronomer  I  know,  and  the  geologist  I  know ; 
but  who  are  ye  ? "  Thus  left  alone  in  a  cloud  of  star-dust,  or  in 
brackish  water  between  the  marine  and  terrestrial  flora,  he  "  appeals 
from  science  to  the  want  of  it,"  casts  a  stone  at  our  Scientific  Insti- 
tutions, and  demands  a  jury  of  "  ordinary  readers,"  as  the  only 
"  tribunal"  by  which «'  the  new  philosophy  is  to  be  truly  and  righte- 
ously judged." 

The  last  anii.  ffteenth  chapter  of  ilr.  Miller's  work,  "  On  the  Bear- 
ing of  Final  Causes  on  Geologic  History,"  if  read  with  care  and 
fhought,  will  prove  at  once  delightful  and  instructive.    The  principle 


EITGH    MILLER.  XXXVII 

oijinal  causes,  or  the  conditions  of  existence,  affords  a  -wide  scope  to 
our  reason  in  Natural  History,  but  especially  in  Geology.  It  be- 
comes an  interesting  inquiry,  if  any  reason  can  be  assigned  why  at 
certain  periods  species  began  to  exist,  and  became  extinct  after  the 
lapse  of  lengthened  periods  of  time,  and  why  the  higher  classes  of 
being  succeeded  the  lower  in  the  order  of  creation  ?  The  incom- 
pleteness of  geological  science,  however,  does  not  permit  us  to  re-  ' 
move,  for  the  present,  the  veil  which  hangs  over  this  mysterious 
chronology ;  but  our  author  is  of  opinion  that  in  about  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  in  a  favored  locality  like  the  British  Islands,  geologi- 
cal history  "  will  assume  a  very  extraordinary  form." 

It  is  a  singular  fact,  which  will  yet  lead  to  singular  results,  that 
Cuvier's  arrangement  of  the  four  classes  of  vertebrate  animals  should 
exhibit  the  same  order  as  that  in  which  they  are  found  in  the  strata 
of  the  earth.  In  the^sA,  the  average  proportion  of  the  brain  to  the 
spinal  cord  is  only  as  2  to  1.  In  the  reptile,  the  ratio  is  2i  to  1.  In 
the  bird,  it  is  as  3  to  1.  In  the  mammalia,  it  is  as  4  to  1 ;  and  in  man, 
it  is  as  23  to  1.  No  less  remarkable  is  the  foetal  progress  of  the 
human  brain.  It  first  becomes  a  brain  resembling  that  of  a  fish ; 
then  it  grows  into  the  form  of  that  of  a  reptile  ;  then  into  that  of  a 
bird ;  then  into  that  of  a  mammiferous  quadruped,  and  finally  it 
assumes  the  form  of  a  human  brain,  "  thus  comprising  in  its  foetal 
progress  an  epitome  of  geological  history,  as  if  man  were  in  himself 
a  compendium  of  aU  animated  nature,  and  of  kin  to  every  creature 
that  Hves." 

AVith  these  considerations,  Mr.  ililler  has  brought  his  subject  to 
the  point  at  which  Science  in  its  onward  progress  now  stands.  It  is 
to  embryology  we  are  in  future  to  look  for  further  information  upon 
the  most  intimate  relations  which  exist  between  all  organized  beings. 
AVe  may  fairly  entertain  the  hope  that  the  time  is  not  far  when  we 
shall  not  only  fully  xinderstand  the  Plan  of  Creation,  but  even  lift 
some  corner  of  the  veil  which  has  hitherto  prevented  us  from  form- 
ing adequate  ideas  of  the  first  introduction  of  animal  and  vegetable 
life  upon  earth,  and  of  the  changes  which  both  kingdoms  have  un- 
dergone in  the  succession  of  geological  ages. 

L.  AGASSIZ, 

CAMBtfiDOE,  September,  1850. 


CONTENTS. 


PAaa 

STROMNESS  AND   ITS  ASTEROLEPIS,  —  THE    LAKE   OF   STENNIS  .     .           .25 
THE    DEVELOPMENT    HYPOTHESIS,   AND   ITS    CONSEQUENCES         ....  37 
THE    RECENT   HISTORY   OF   THE    ASTEROLEPIS,  — ITS   FAMILY    ....  48 
CEREBRAL   DEVELOPMENT   «V   THE  EARLIER  VERTEBRATA.  —  ITS  AP- 
PARENT PRINCIPLE 68 

THE    ASTEROLEPIS.  — ITS  STRUCTURE,   BULK,  AND   ASPECT     .     .           .     .  94 
FISHES   OF   THE    SILURIAN    ROCKS,   UPPER    AND   LOWER.  —  THEIR  RE- 
CENT  HISTORY,   ORDER,   AND   SIZE 130 

HIGH   STANDINCJ   OF   THE    PLACOIDS.  —  OBJECTIONS   CONSIDERED       .     .  147 
THE    PLACOID    BRAIN.  —  EMBRYONIC    CHARACTERISTICS    NOT    NECES- 
SARILY  OF    A    LOW   ORDER .     .  160 

THE   PROGRESS   OF  DEGRADATION.  —  ITS  HISTORY St 

EVIDENCE    OF   THE   SILURIAN   MOLLUSCS.  —  OF   THE   FOSSIL   FLORA.— 

ANCIENT    TREE 205 

SUPERPOSITION    NOT    PARENTAL    RELATION.  —  THK     BESINNINSS     OF 

LIFE .     .                ...  230 

;.4MARCKIAN  HYPOTHESIS   OF   THE    ORIGIN    OF  PLANTS.  —  ITS  CONSE- 

QlfENCES      ....                      .     .                      .  243 


Xl  CONTENTS. 


PAOS 
THE    TWO    FLORAS,    MARINE    AND    TERRESTRIAL.  —  BEARING    OF   THE 

EXPERIENCE   ARGUMENT         262 

THE  DEVELOPaiENT  HYPOTHESIS   IN  ITS   EMBRYONIC  STATE OLDER 

THAN   ITS   ALLEGED   FOUNDATIONS 277 

FINAL  CAUSES. —THEIR  BEARING  ON  GEOLOGIC  HISTORY  — CONCLD- 

SIOX  .  .  ...  303 


LIST  OF  WOOD-CUTS 


1.  Internal  ridge  of  hyoid  plate  of  Asterolepis 31 

2.  Shagreen  oi  Raja  clavata  :  —  oi  Sphagodus 54 

3.  Scales  oi  Acanthodes  sulcatus  :  —  shagreen  oi  Scyllium  stellare     .  55 

4.  Scales  of    Cheiracanthus  microlepidotzts : — shagreen  of  Spmax 

Acanthias 56 

6.  Section  of  shagreen  of  Scyllium  stellare:  —  of  scales  of  Chdra- 

canthits  microlepidotus '.56 

f    Scales  of  Osteolepis  microlepidottis : — of  an  undescribed  species 

of  Glyptolepis 67 

7.  Osseous  points  of  Flaccid  Cranium 65 

8.  Osseous  centrum  of  »*vpMtax  ^can<7«'as  ; — oi  Raja  clavata     ...  67 

9.  Portions  of  caudal  fin  of  CAejVacaw<Ai« ;  —  of  Cheirolepis    ...  69 

10  Upper -surface  of  cranium  of  Cod 72 

11  Cranial  buckler  of  Coccosteus 74 

12.  Cranial  buckler  of  Osteolepis 75 

13.  Upper  surface  of  head  of  Osteolepis 77 

14.  Under  surface  of  head  of  Osteolepis 79 

15.  Head  of  Osteolepis,  seen  in  profile 80 

16.  Cranial  buckler  of  Diplopterus 81 

17.  Ditto 82 

18.  Palatal  dart-head,  and  group  of  palatal  teeth,  of  Dipterus   ...  83 

19.  Cranial  buckler  of  Diptenis 85 

20.  Base  of  cranium  of  Dipterus 86 

21i  Under  jaw  of  Diptenis       87 . 

22.  Longitudinal  section  of  head  of  Dipterus 88 

23.  Section  of  vertebral  centrum  of  Thornback 92 

24.  Dermal  tubercles  of  Asterolepis       95 

25.  Scales  of  Asterolepis 96 


Xlii  LIST    OF    WOOD-CUTS. 

PAOI 

26.  Portion  of  carved  surface  of  scale      •         .96 

27.  Cranial  buckler  of  Asterolepis .  98 

28.  Inner  surface  of  cranial  buckler  of  Asterolepis ,99 

29.  Plates  of  cranial  buckler  of  Asterolepis 102 

30.  Portion  of  under  jaw  of  Asterolepis 103 

31.  Inner  side  of  portion  of  under  jaw  of  Asterolepis        ...         .  104 

32.  Portion  of  transverse  section  of  reptile  tooth  of  Asterolepis    .     .  105 

33.  Section  of  jaw  of  Asterolepis 106 

Zi.  Maxillary  bone  ? 108 

35.  Inner  surface  of  operculum  of  Asterolepis 109 

36.  Hyoid  plate llO 

37.  Nail-like  bone  of  hyoid  plate •    .  Ill 

38.  Shoulder  plate  of  Asterolepis 112 

39.  Dermal  bones  of  Asto'olepis       113 

40.  Internal  bones  of  Asterolepis 114 

41.  Ditto       115 

42.  Ischium  of  Asterolepis 116 

43.  Joint  of  ray  of  Thornback  : — o{  Asterolepis 117 

44.  Coprolites  of  Asterolepis 118 

45.  Hyoid  plate  of  Thurso  Asterolepis       124 

46.  Hyoid  plate  of  Russian  Asterolepis 127 

47.  Spine  of  Spinas  AcMithias :  —  fragment  of  Onondago  spine     .    .  143 

48.  Tail  o(  Spi7iax  Acaiithias :  —  o(  Ichthi/osqunts   tenuirostris      .    .  172 

49.  Port  Jackson  Shark  {Cestracion  Phillippi) 177 

50.  Tail  of  Osteolepis 195 

61.  Tail  of  Lepidosteus  osseus  ... 196 

62.  Tail  of  Perch 197 

53.  Altingia  excelsa  (Norfolk-Island  Pine) 212 

64.  Fucoids  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone 216 

65.  Two  species  of  Old  Red  Fucoids 217 

60.  Fern  (?)  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone 219 

.  67.  Lignite  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone    ........  221 

68.  Internal  structure  of  lignite  of  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  .    .    .  223 


STROMNESS  AND  ITS  ASTEROLEPIS. 


THE  LAKE  OF  STENNIS. 


HEN  engaged  in  prosecuting  the  self 
imposed  task  of  examining  in  detail 
the  various  fossiliferous  deposits  of 
Scotland,  in  the  hope  of  ultimately 
acquamting  myself  with  them  all,  I  ex- 
tended my  exploratory  ramble,  about 
two  years  ago,  into  the  Mainland  of  Orkney,  and  resided  for 
some  time  in  the  vicinity  of  Stromness. 

This  busy  seaport  town  forms  that  special  centre,  in  this 
northern  archipelago,  from  which  the  structure  of  the  en- 
tire group  can  be  most  advantageously  studied.  The  geol- 
ogy of  the  Orkneys,  like  that  of  Caithness,  owes  its  chief 
interest  to  the  immense  development  which  it  exhibits  of 
one  formation,  —  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone,  —  and  to  the 
extraordinary  abundance  of  its  vertebrate  remains.  It  is 
not  too  much  to  affirm,  that  in  the  comparatively  small 
portion  which  this  cluster  of  islands  contains  of  the  third 
part  of  a  system  regarded  only  a  few  years  ago  as  the  least 
fossiliferous  in  the  geologic  scale,  there  are  more  fossil  fisb 


26  STROMNESS 

enclosed  than  in  every  other  geologic  system  in  Erglani, 
Scotland,  and  Wales,  from  the  Coal  Measures  to  the  Chalk 
inclusive.  Orkney  is  emphatically,  to  the  geologist,  what  a 
juvenile  Shetland  poetess  designates  her  country,  in  cha'- 
lenging  for  it  a  standing  independent  of  the  "  Land  of  Cakes," 
—  a  "  Land  of  Fish  ;  "  and,  were  the  trade  onc^  fairly  opjned 
up,  could  supply  with  ichthyolites,  by  the  ton  and  the  ship- 
load, the  museums  of  the  world.  Its  various  deposits,  with 
all  their  strange  organisms,  have  been  uptilted  from  the  bot- 
tom against  a  granitic  axis,  rather  more  than  six  miles  in 
length  by  about  a  mile  in  breadth,  which  forms  the  great 
back-bone  of  the  western  district  of  Pomona ;  and  on  this 
granitic  axis  —  fast  jammed  in  between  9  steep  hill  and  the 
sea  —  stands  the  town  of  Stromness.  Situated  thus  at  the 
bottom  of  the  upturned  deposits  of  the  island,  it  occupies  ex- 
actly such  a  point  of  observation  as  that  which  the  curioua 
eastern  traveller  would  select,  in  front  of  some  huge  pyra- 
mid or  hieroglyphic-covered  obelisk,  as  a  proper  site  for  his 
tent.  It  presents,  besides,  not  a  k\v  facilities  for  studying, 
with  the  geological  phenomena,  various  interesting  points  in 
physical  science  of  a  cognate  character.  Resting  on  its 
granitic  base,  in  front  of  the  strangely  sculptured  pyramid  of 
three  broad  tiers,  —  red,  black,  and  gray,  —  which  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone  of  these  islands  may  be  regarded  as  forming, 
it  is  but  a  short  half  mile  from  the  Great  Conglomerate  base 
of  the  formation,  and  scarcely  a  quarter  of  a  mile  more  from 
the  older  beds  of  its  central  flagstone  deposit ;  while  an  hour's 
sail  on  the  one  hand  opens  to  the  explorer  the  overlying  are- 
naceous deposit  of  Hoy,  and  an  hour's  walk  on  the  other 
mtroduces  him  to  the  Loch  of  Stennis,  with  its  curiously 
mixed  flora  and  fauna.  But  of  the  Loch  of  Stennis  and  its 
productions  more  anon. 


AND   ITS    ASTEROLEPIS.  27 

The  day  was  far  spent  when  I  reached  Stromness ;  but  as 
I  had  a  fine  bright  evening  still  before  me,  longer  by  some 
three  or  four  degrees  of  north  latitude  than  the  midsummer 
evenings  of  the  south  of  Scotland,  I  set  out,  hammer  in 
hand,  to  examine  the  junction  of  the  granite  and  the  Great 
Conglomerate,  where  it  has  been  laid  bare  by  the  sea  along 
the  low  promontory  which  forms  the  western  boundary  of 
the  harbor.  The  granite  here  is  a  ternary  of  the  usual  com- 
ponents, somewhat  intermediate  in  grain  and  color  between 
the  granites  of  Peterhead  and  Abefdeen  ;  and  the  conglom- 
erate consists  of  materials  almost  exclusively  derived  from  it, 
—  evidence  enough  of  itself,  that  when  this  ancient  mechan- 
ical deposit  was  in  course  of  forming,  the  granite  —  exactly 
such  a  compound  then  as  it  is  now  —  was  one  of  the  surface 
rocks  of  the  locality,  and  much  exposed  to  disintegrating  influ- 
ences. This  conglomerate  base  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone of  Scotland  —  which  presents,  over  an  area  of  many 
thousand  square  miles,  such  an  identity  of  character,  that 
specimens  taken  from  the  neighborhood  of  Lerwick,  in  Shet- 
land, or  of  Gamrie,  in  Banff,  can  scarce  be  distinguished 
from  specimens  detached  from  the  hills  which  rise  over  the 
Great  Caledonian  Valley,  or  from  the  cliffs  immediately  in 
front  of  the  village  of  Contin  —  seems  to  have  been  formed 
in  a  vast  oceanic  basin  of  primary  rock,  —  a  Palaeozoic  Hud- 
son's or  Baffin's  Bay,  —  partially  surrounded,  mayhap,  by 
primary  continents,  swept  by  numerous  streams,  rapid  and 
headlong,  and  charged  with  the  broken  debris  of  the  inhospi- 
table regions  which  they  drained.  The  graptolite-bearing 
grauwacke  of  Banffshire  seems  to  have  been  the  only  fossil 
iferous  rock  that  occurred  throughout  the  entire  extent  of 
this  ancient  northern  basin ;  and  its  few  organisms  now 
serve  to  open  th(  sole  vista  through  which  the  geological  ex- 


28  STEOMNESS 

plorer  to  the  north  of  the  Grampians  can  catch  a  glimpse  of 
an  earlier  period  of  existence  than  that  represented  by  the 
ichthyolites  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone. 

Very  many  ages  must  have  passed  ere,  amid  waves 
and  currents,  the  vi^ater-worn  debris  which  now  forms  the 
Great  Conglonerate  could  have  accumulated  over  tracts 
of  sea-bottom  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  square  miles  m 
area,  to  its  present  depth  of  from  one  to  four  hundred  feet. 
At  length,  however,  a  thorough  change  took  place ;  but 
we  can  only  doubtfully  speculate  regarding  its  nature  or 
cause.  The  bottom  of  the  Palseozoic  basin  became  greatly 
less  exposed.  Some  protecting  circle  of  coast  had  been 
thrown  up  around  it  ;  or,  what  is  perhaps  more  proba- 
ble, it  had  sunk  to  a  profounder  depth,  and  the  ancient 
shores  and  streams  had  receded,  through  the  depression,  to 
much  greater  distances.  And,  in  consequence,  the  deposi- 
tion of  rough  sand  and  rolled  pebbles  was  followed  by  a 
deposition  of  mud.  Myriads  of  fish,  of  forms  the  most 
ancient  and  obsolete,  congregated  on  its  banks  or  shel- 
tered in  its  hollows ;  generation  succeeded  generation,  mil- 
lions and  tens  of  millions  perished  mysteriously  by  sudden 
death  ;  shoals  after  shoals  were  annihilated ;  but  the  pro- 
ductive powers  of  nature  were  strong,  and  the  waste  was 
kept  up.  But  who  among  men  shall  reckon  the  years  or 
centuries  during  which  these  races  existed,  and  this  muddy 
ocean  of  the  remote  past  spread  out  to  unknown  and  nameless 
shores  around  them  ?  As  in  those  great  cities  of  the  desert 
that  lie  uninhabited  and  waste,  we  can  but  conjecture  their 
term  of  existence  from  the  vast  extent  of  their  cemeteries. 
We  only  know  that  the  dark,  finely-grained  schists  in  which 
they  so  abundantly  occur  must  have  been  of  comparatively 
«Iow  formation,  and  that  yet  the   thickness  of  the  deposit 


AND    ITS   ASTEROLEPIS.  29 

more  tlian  equals  the  height  of  our  loftiest  Scottish  moun- 
tains. It  would  seem  as  if  a  period  equal  to  that  in  which 
all  human  history  is  comprised  might  be  cut  out  of  a  corner 
of  the  period  represented  by  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone, 
and  be  scarce  missed  when  away  ;  for  every  year  during 
which  man  has  lived  upon  earth,  it  is  not  improbable  that  the 
Vlerichthys  and  its  contemporaries  may  have  lived  a  cen- 
tury. Their  last  hour,  however,  at  length  came.  Over  the 
dark-colored  ichthyolitic  schists  so  immensely  developed  in 
Caithness  and  Orkney,  there  occurs  a  pale-tinted,  unfossilif- 
erous  sandstone,  which  in  the  island  of  Hoy  rises  into  hills  of 
from  fourteen  to  sixteen  hundred  feet  in  height ;  and  among 
the  organisms  of  those  newer  formations  of  the  Old  Red 
which  overlie  this  deposit,  not  a  species  of  ichthyolite  iden- 
tical with  the  species  entombed  in  the  lower  schists  has  yet 
been  detected.  In  the  blank  interval  which  the  arenaceous 
deposit  represents,  tribes  and  families  perished  and  disap- 
peared, leaving  none  of  their  race  to  succeed  them,  that  other 
tribes  and  families  might  be  called  into  being,  and  fall  into 
their  vacant  places  in  the  onward  march  of  creation. 

Such,  so  far  as  the  various  hieroglyphics  of  the  pile  have  yet 
rendered  their  meanings  to  the  geologist,  is  the  strange  story 
recorded  on  the  three-barred  pyramid  of  Stromness.  I  traced 
the  formation  upwards  this  evening  along  the  edges  of  the 
upturned  strata,  from  where  the  Great  Conglomerate  leans 
against  the  granite,  till  where  it  merges  into  the  ichthyolitic 
flagstones ;  and  then  pursued  these  from  older  and  lower  to 
newer  and  higher  layers,  desirous  of  ascertaining  at  what 
distance  over  the  base  of  the  system  its  more  ancient  organ- 
isms first  appear,  and  what  their  character  and  kind.  And, 
embedded  in  a  grayish-colored  layer  of  hard  flag,  somewhat 
less  than  a  hundred  yards  over  the  granite,  and  about  a 
3* 


30  STROMNESS 

hundred  and  sixty  feet  over  the  upper  stratum  of  the  con- 
glomerate, I  found  what  I  sought,  —  a  well-marked  bone, —  in 
all  probability  the  oldest  vertebrate  remain  yet  discovered  in 
Orkney.  What,  asks  the  reader,  was  the  character  of  this 
ancient  organism  of  the  Palaeozoic  basin  ? 

As  shown  by  its  cancellated  texture,  palpable  to  the  naked 
eye,  and  still  more  unequivocally  by  the  irregular  complexity 
of  fabric  which  it  exhibits  under  the  microscope,  —  by  its 
speck-like  life-points  or  canaliculi,  that  remind  one  of  air- 
bubbles  in  ice,  —  its  branching  channels,  like  minute  veins, 
through  which  the  blood  must  once  have  flown, —  and  its 
general  groundwork  of  irregular  lines  of  corpuscular  fibre, 
that  wind  through  the  whole  like  currents  in  a  river  studded 
with  islands, —  it  was  as  truly  osseous  in  its  composition 
as  the  solid  bones  of  any  of  the  reptiles  of  the  Secondary,  or 
the  quadrupeds  of  the  Tertiary  periods.  And  in  form  it 
closely  resembled  a  large  roofing-nail.  With  this  bone  our 
more  practised  palseontologists  are  but  little  acquainted,  for 
no  remains  of  the  animal  to  which  it  belonged  have  yet  been 
discovered  in  Britain  to  the  south  of  the  Grampians,*  nor,  ex- 
cept mthe  Old  Red  Sandstone  of  Russia,  has  it  been  detectea 


*  Since  the  above  sentence  was  written  and  set  in  type,  I  have 
learned  that  my  ingenious  friend,  Mr.  Charles  Peach  of  the  Cus- 
toms, Fowey,  so  weU  known  for  his  palsDontological  discoveries, 
has  just  found  in  the  Devonian  system  of  Cornwall,  fragments  of 
what  seem  to  be  dermal  plates  of  Asterolepis.  It  is  a  somewhat 
curious  circumstance,  that  the  two  farthest  removed  extremi- 
ties of  Great  Britain — Cornwall  and  Caithness  —  should  he  tipped 
by  fossiliferous  deposits  of  the  same  ancient  system,  and  that 
organisms  which,  when  they  lived,  were  conteraporarj',  should  be 
found  embedded  in  the  rocks  which  rise  over  the  British  Channel 
on  the  one  extremity,  and  overhang  the  Pentland  Frith  on  tho 
other. 


AND   ITS    ASTEROLEPIS. 


31 


any  whero  on  the  Continent.  Nor  am  I  aware  that,  save  in 
the  accompanying  wood-cut,  (fig.  1,)  it  has  ever  been  figured. 
The  amateur  ged  agists  of  Caithness  and  Orkney  have,  how- 
ever, learned  to  recognize  it  as  the  "  petrified  nail."  The 
length  of  the  entire  specimen  in  this  instance  was  five 
seven  eighth  inches,  the  transverse  breadth  of  the  head  two 
inches  and  a  quarter,  and  the  thickness  of  the  stem  nearly 
three  tenth  parts  of  an  inch.  This  nail-like  bone  formed 
a  characteristic  portion  of  the  Asterolepis,  —  so  far  as  is  yet 
known,  the  most  gigantic  ganoid  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone, 
and,  judging  from  the  place  of  this  fragment,  apparently  one 
of  the  first. 

Fig.  1. 


mTBHWAIi  BIDOE  OP  HTOID  PLATE   OF  ASTEKOLEPIS.* 

(One  third  the  natural  size,  linear.) 


•  Figured  from  a  Thurao  specimen,  sKghtly  diffeicnt  in  its  propor- 
tions from  the  Stromness  specimen  described. 


32  STROMNESS   AND    ITS    ASTEROLEPIS. 

There  were  various  considerations  which  led  me  to  regard 
the  "  petrified  nail"  in  this  case  as  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing fossils  I  had  ever  seen ;  and,  before  quitting  Orkney,  to 
pursue  my  explorations  farther  to  the  south,  I  brought  two  in- 
telligent geologists  of  the  district,*  to  mark  its  place  and 
character,  that  they  might  be  able  to  point  it  out  to  geologi- 
cal visitors  in  the  future,  or,  if  they  preferred  removing  it 
to  their  town  museum,  to  indicate  to  them  the  stratum  in 
which  it  had  lain.  It  showed  me,  among  other  things,  how 
unsafe  it  is  for  the  geologist  to  base  positive  conclusions 
on  merely  negative  data.  Founding  on  the  fact  that,  of 
many  hundred  ichthyolites  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone which  I  had  disinterred  and  examined,  all  were  of  com- 
paratively small  size,  while  in  the  Upper  Old  Red  many  of 
the  ichthyolites  are  of  great  mass  and  bulk,  I  had  inferred 
that  vertebrate  life  had  been  restricted  to  minuter  forms  at 
the  commencement  than  at  the  close  of  the  system.  It 
had  begun,  I  had  ventured  to  state  in  the  earlier  editions  of  a 
little  work  on  the  "  Old  Red  Sandstone,"  with  an  age  of 
dwarfs,  and  had  ended  with  an  ag«  of  giants.  And  now, 
here,  at  the  very  base  of  the  system,  unaccompanied  by 
aught  to  establish  the  contemporary  existence  of  its  dwarfs, 
—  which  appear,  however,  in  an  overlying  bed  about  a  hun- 
dred feet  higher  up,  —  was  there  unequivocal  proof  of  the  ex- 
istence of  one  of  the  most  colossal  of  its  giants.  But  nov 
unfrequently,  in  the  geologic  field,  has  the  practice  of  basing 
positive  conclusions  on  merely  negative  grounds  led  to  a  mis- 
reading of  the  record.  From  evidence  of  a  kind  exactly 
similar  to  that  on  which  I  had  built,  it  was  inferred,  some  two 


*  Dr.  George  Garson,  Stromness,  and  Mr.  William  Watt,  jun. 
Skaill. 


THE   LAK5    OF   STENNIS.  33 

or  three  years  ago,  that  there  had  lived  no  reptiles  during  the 
period  of  the  Coal  Measures,  and  no  fish  in  the  times  of  the 
Lower  Silurian  System. 

I  extended  my  researches,  a  few  days  after,  in  an  easterly 
direction  from  the  town  of  Stromness,  and  walked  for  several 
miles  along  the  shores  of  the  Loch  of  Stennis,  —  a  large  lake 
labout  fourteen  miles  in  circumference,  bare  and  treeless,  like 
all  the  other  lakes  and  lochs  of  Orkney,  but  picturesque  of 
outline,  and  divided  into  an  upper  and  lower  sheet  of  water 
by  two  low,  long  promontories,  that  jut  out  from  opposite 
sides,  and  so  nearly  meet  in  the  middle  as  to  be  connected  by 
a  thread-like  line  of  road,  half  mound,  half  bridge.  "  The 
Loch  of  Stennis,"  says  Mr.  David  Vedder,  the  sailor-poet  of 
Orkney,  "  is  a  beautiful  Mediterranean  in  miniature."  It  gives 
admission  to  the  sea  by  a  narrow  strait,  crossed,  like  that 
which  separates  the  two  promontories  in  the  middle,  by  a 
long  rustic  bridge  ;  and,  in  consequence  of  this  peculiarity, 
the  lower  division  of  the  lake  is  salt  in  its  nether  reaches 
and  brackish  in  its  upper  ones,  while  the  higher  division 
is  merely  brackish  in  its  nether  reaches,  and  fresh  enough 
in  its  upper  ones  to  be  potable.  Viewed  from  the  east, 
in  one  of  the  long,  clear,  sunshiny  evenings  of  the  Orkney 
summer,  it  seems  not  unworthy  the  eulogium  of  Vedder. 
There  are  moory  hills  and  a  few  rude  cottages  in  front ;  and 
in  the  background,  some  eight  or  ten  miles  away,  the  bold, 
steep  mountain  masses  of  Hoy ;  while  on  the  promontories 
of  the  lake,  in  the  middle  distance,  conspicuous  in  the  land- 
scape, from  the  relief  furnished  by  the  blue  ground  of  the 
surrounding  waters,  stand  the  tall  gray  obelisks  of  Stennis, 
—  one  grou-)  on  the  northern  promontory,  the  other  on  the 
saath, — 

"  Old  even  beyond  tradition's  breath." 


34  THE    LAKE    OF    STENNIS. 

The  snores  of  both  the  upper  and  lower  divisions  of  the 
lake  were  strewed,  at  the  time  I  passed,  by  a  line  of  virack, 
consisting,  for  the  first  few  miles  from  where  the  lower  loch 
opens  to  the  sea,  of  only  marine  plants,  then  of  marine  plants 
mixed  with  those  of  fresh-water  growth,  and  then,  in  the 
upper  sh3et  of  water,  of  lacustrine  plants  exclusively.  And 
the  fauna  of  the  loch  is,  I  was  informed,  of  as  mixed  a  char- 
acter as  its  flora,  —  the  marine  and  fresh-water  animals  hav- 
ing each  their  own  reaches,  with  certain  debatable  tracts 
between,  in  which  each  kind  expatiates  with  more  or  less 
freedom,  according  to  its  specific  nature  and  constitution, — 
some  of  the  sea-fish  advancing  far  on  the  fresh  water,  and 
others,  among  the  proper  denizens  of  the  lake,  encroaching 
far  on  the  salt.  The  common  fresh-water  eel  strikes  out,  I 
was  told,  farthest  into  the  sea-water  ;  in  which,  indeed,  revers- 
ing the  habits  of  the  salmon,  it  is  known  in  various  places 
to  deposit  its  spawn.  It  seeks,  too,  impatient  of  a  low  tem- 
perature, to  escape  from  the  cold  of  winter,  by  taking  refuge 
in  water  brackish  enough,  in  a  climate  such  as  ours,  to  resist 
the  influence  of  frost.  Of  the  marine  fish,  on  the  other  hand, 
I  found  that  the  flounder  got  greatly  higher  than  any  of 
the  others,  inhabiting  reaches  of  the  lake  almost  entirely 
fresh.  I  have  had  an  opportunity  elsewhere  of  observing  a 
curious  change  which  fresh  water  induces  in  this  fish.  In  the 
brackish  water  of  an  estuary,  the  animal  becomes,  without 
diminishing  in  general  size,  thicker  and  more  fleshy  than  when 
in  its  legitimate  habitat,  the  sea :  but  the  flesh  loses  in  quality 
what  it  gains  in  quantity  ;  —  it  grows  flabby  and  insipid,  and 
the  margin-fin  lacks  always  its  strip  of  transparent  fat.  But 
the  change  induced  in  the  two  floras  of  the  lake  —  marine  and 
lacustrine  —  is  considerably  more  palpable  and  obvious  than 
that  induced  n  its  two  faunas.     As  I  passed  along  the  strait, 


THE   LAKE    OF    STENNIS.  35 

through  which  it  gives  admission  to  the  sea,  I  Sound  the 
commoner  fucoids  of  our  sea-coasts  streaming  in  great  luxu- 
riance in  the  tideway,  from  the  stones  and  rocks  of  the  bot- 
tom. I  marked,  among  the  others,  the  two  species  of  kelp- 
weed,  so  well  known  to  our  Scotch  kelp-burners,  —  Fucus 
nodosus  and  Fuctis  vesiculosus,  —  flourishing  in  their  uncur- 
tailed  proportions ;  and  the  not  inelegant  Halidrys  siliquosa^ 
or  "  tree  in  the  sea,"  presenting  its  amplest  spread  of  pod  and 
frond.  A  little  farther  in,  Halidrys  and  Fucus  nodosus  dis- 
appear, and  Fucus  vesiculosus  becomes  greatly  stunted,  and 
no  longer  exhibits  its  characteristic  double  rows  of  bladders. 
But  for  mile  after  mile  it  continues  to  exist,  blent  with  some 
of  the  hardier  confervse,  until  at  length  it  becomes  as  dwarfish 
and  nearly  as  slim  of  frond  as  the  confervae  themselves  ; 
and  it  is  only  by  tracing  it  through  the  intermediate  forms 
that  we  succeed  in  convincing  ourselves  that,  in  the  brown 
stunted  tufts  of  from  one  to  three  inches  in  length,  which 
continue  to  fringe  the  middle  reaches  of  the  lake,  we  have 
in  reality  the  well-known  Fucus  before  us.  Rushes,  flags, 
and  aquatic  grasses  may  now  be  seen  standing  in  diminutive 
tufts  out  of  the  water ;  and  a  terrestrial  vegetation  at  least 
continues  to  exist,  though  it  can  scarce  be  said  to  thrive,  on 
banks  covered  by  the  tide  at  full.  The  lacustrine  flora 
increases,  both  in  extent  and  luxuriance,  as  that  of  the  sea 
diminishes ;  and  in  the  upper  reaches  we  fail  to  detect  all 
trace  of  marine  plants  :  the  algse,  so  luxuriant  of  growth  along 
the  straits  of  this  "  miniature  Mediterranean,"  altogether 
cease  ;  and  a  semi-aquatic  vegetation  attains,  in  turn,  to  the 
state  of  fullest  development  any  where  permitted  by  the  tem- 
perature of  this  northern  locality.  A  memoir  descriptive  of 
the  Loch  of  Stennis,  and  its  productions,  animal  and  vegetable, 
such  as  old  Gilbert  White  of  Selborne  could  have  produced. 


36  THE   LAKE    OF    STENNIS. 

would  be  at  once  a  very  valuable  and  curious  document,  im- 
portant to  the  naturalist,  and  not  without  its  use  to  the  geologi- 
cal student. 

I  know  not  how  it  may  be  with  others ;  but  the  special 
phenomena  connected  with  Orkney  that  most  decidedly  bore 
fruit  in  my  mind,  and  to  which  my  thoughts  have  most  fre- 
quently reverted,  were  those  exhibited  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Stromness.  I  would  more  particularly  refer  to  the  char- 
acteristic fragment  of  Asterolepis,  which  I  detected  in  its  lower 
flagstones,  and  to  the  curiously  mixed,  semi-marine,  semi- 
lacustrine  vegetation  of  the  Loch  of  Stennis.  Both  seem  to 
bear  very  directly  on  that  development  hypothesis,  —  fast 
spreading  among  an  active  and  ingenious  order  of  minds, 
both  in  Britain  and  America,  and  which  has  been  long  known 
on  the  Continent,  —  that  would  fain  transfer  the  work  of  crea- 
tion from  the  department  of  miracle  to  the  province  of  natural 
law,  and  would  strike  down,  in  the  process  of  removal,  all  the 
old  landmarks,  ethical  and  religious. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS.  97 


THE   DEVELOPMENT    HYPOTHESIS,    AND   ITS 
CONSEQUENCES. 


Every  individual,  whatever  its  species  or  order,  begins 
and  increases  until  it  attains  to  its  state  of  fullest  develop- 
ment, under  certain  fixed  laws,  and  in  consequence  of  their 
operation.  The  microscopic  monad  develops  into  a  foetus, 
the  foetus  into  a  child,  the  child  into  a  man  ;  and,  however 
marvellous  the  process,  in  none  of  its  stages  is  there  the 
slightest  mixture  of  miracle ;  from  beginning  to  end,  all  is 
progressive  development,  according  to  a  determinate  order  of 
things.  Has  Nature,  during  the  vast  geologic  periods,  been 
pregnant,  in  like  manner,  with  the  human  race  ?  and  is  the 
species,  like  the  individual,  an  effect  of  progressive  develop- 
ment, induced  and  regulated  by  law  ?  The  assertors  of  the 
revived  hypothesis  of  Maillet  and  Lamarck  reply  in  the  af- 
firmative. Nor,  be  it  remarked,  is  there  positive  atheism 
involved  in  the  belief.  God  might  as  certainly  have  origi- 
nated the  species  by  a  law  of  development,  as  he  maintains  it 
by  a  law  of  development ;  the  existence  of  a  First  Great 
Cause  is  as  perfectly  compatible  with  the  one  scheme  as  with 
the  other  ;  and  it  may  be  necessary  thus  broadly  to  state  the 
fact,  not  only  in  justice  to  the  Lamarckians,  but  also  fairly  to 
warn  their  non-geological  opponents,  that  in  this  contest 
the  old  anti-atheistic  arguments,  whether  founded  on  the 
4 


d8  THE  DEVELOPMENT  EYTOTHESIS, 

evidence  of  design,  or  on  the  preliminary  doctrine  of  final 
causes,  cannot  be  brought  to  bear. 

There  are,  however,  beHefs,  in  no  degree  less  impcirtant 
to  the  moralist  or  the  Christian  than  even  that  in  the  being  of 
a  God,  which  seem  wholly  incompatible  with  the  develop- 
ment hypothesis.  If,  during  a  period  so  vast  as  to  be  scarce 
expressible  by  figures,  the  creatures  now  human  have  been 
rising,  by  almost  infinitesimals,  from  compound  microscopic 
cells,  —  minute  vital  globules  within  globules,  begot  by  elec- 
tricity on  dead  gelatinous  matter,  —  until  they  have  at  length 
become  the  men  and  women  whom  we  see  around  us,  we  must 
hold  either  the  monstrous  belief,  that  all  the  vitalities,  whether 
those  of  monads  or  of  mites,  of  fishes  or  of  reptiles,  of  birds 
or  of  beasts,  are  individually  and  inherently  immortal  and 
undying,  or  that  human  souls  are  not  so.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  dying  and  the  undying,  —  between  the  spirit  of  the 
brute  that  goeth  downward,  and  the  spirit  of  the  man  that 
goeth  upward,  —  is  not  a  difference  infinitesimally,  or  even 
atomically  small.  It  possesses  all  the  breadth  of  the  eternity 
to  come,  and  is  an  infinitely  great  difference.  It  cannot,  if  I 
may  so  express  myself,  be  shaded  off  by  infinitesimals  or 
atoms ;  for- it  is  a  difference  which  —  as  there  can  be  no  class 
of  beings  intermediate  in  their  nature  between  the  dying  and  the 
undying  —  admits  not  of  gradation  at  all.  What  mind,  regu- 
lated by  the  ordinary  principles  of  human  belief,  can  possibly 
hold  that  every  one  of  the  thousand  vital  points  which  swim  in 
a  drop  of  stagnant  water  are  inherently  fitted  to  maintain  their 
individuality  throughout  eternity  }  Or  how  can  it  be  rationally 
held  that  a  mere  progressive  step,  in  itself  no  greater  or  more 
important  than  that  efliected  by  the  addition  of  a  single  brick 
to  a  house  in  the  building  state,  or  of  a  single  atom  to  a  body 
in  the  growing  state,  could  ever  have  produced  immortality  ? 


AND   ITS   CONSEQUENCES.  39 

And  yet,  if  the  spirit  of  a  monad  or  of  a  mollusc  be  not  im- 
mortal, then  must  there  either  have  been  a  point  in  the  his- 
tory' of  the  species  at  which  a  dying  brute  —  differing  from 
its  offspring  merely  by  an  inferiority  of  development,  repre- 
sented by  a  few  atoms,  mayhap  by  a  single  atom  —  produced 
an  undying  man,  or  man  in  his  present  state  must  be  a  mere 
animal,  possessed  of  no  immortal  soul,  and  as  irresponsible 
for  his  actions  to  the  God  before  whose  bar  he  is,  in  conse- 
quence, never  to  appear,  as  his  presumed  relatives  and  pro- 
genitors the  beasts  that  perish.  Nor  will  it  do  to  attempt 
escaping  from  the  difficulty,  by  alleging  that  God  at  some 
certain  link  in  the  chain  might  have  converted  a  mortal  crea- 
ture into  an  immortal  existence,  by  breathing  into  it  a  "  living 
soul ;  "  seeing  that  a'  renunciation  of  any  such  direct  inter- 
ference on  the  part  of  Deity  in  the  work  of  creation  forms 
the  prominent  and  characteristic  feature  of  the  scheme,  — 
nay,  that  it  constitutes  the  very  nucleus  round  which  the 
scheme  has  originated.  And  thus,  though  the  development 
theory  be  not  atheistic,  it  is  at  least  practically  tantamount 
to  atheism.  For,  if  man  be  a  dying  creature,  restricted  in 
his  existence  to  the  present  scene  of  things,  what  does  it  really 
matter  to  him,  for  any  one  moral  purpose,  whether  there  be  a 
God  or  no  ?  If  in  reality  on  the  same  religious  level  with 
the  dog,  wolf,  and  fox,  that  are  by  nature  atheists,  —  a  nature 
most  properly  coupled  with  irresponsibility,  —  to  what  one 
practical  purpose  should  he  know  or  believe  in  a  Goa  whom 
he,  as  certainly  as  they,  is  never  to  meet  as  his  Judge  ?  or 
why  should  he  square  his  conduct  by  the  requirements  of  the 
moral  code,  farther  than  a  low  and  convenient  expediency 
may  chance  to  demand  ?  * 

*  The  Continental   assertors  of  the   development  hypothesis  are 
greatlj   more  frank  than  those  of  our  own  country  regarding'  the 


40 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS, 


Nor  does  the  purely  Christian  objection  to  the  development 
hypothesis  seem  less,  but  even  more  insuperable  than  that 
derived  from  the  province  of  natural  theology.  The  belief 
which  is  perhaps  of  all  others  most  fundamentally  essential 
to  the  revealed  scheme  of  salvation,  is  the  belief  that  "  God 
created  man  upright,"  and  that  man,  instead  of  proceeding 
onward  and  upward  from  this  high  and  fair  beginning,  to  a 
yet  higher  and  fairer  standing  in  the  scale  of  creation,  sank, 
and  became  morally  lost  and  degraded.  And  hence  the  ne- 
cessity for  that  second  dispensation  of  recovery  and  restora- 
tion which  forms  the  entire  burden  of  God's  revealed  mes- 
sage to  man.     If,  according  to  the  development  theory,  the 


"  life  after  death,"  and  what  man  has  to  expect  from  it.  The  in- 
dividual, they  tell  us,  perishes  forever ;  but,  then,  out  of  his  remains 
there  spring  up  other  vitalities.  The  immortality  of  the  soul  is,  it 
would  seem,  an  idle  figment,  for  there  really  exists  no  such  things  as 
souls ;  but  is  there  no  comfort  in  being  taught,  instead,  that  we 
are  to  resolve  into  monads  and  maggots  ?  Job  solaced  himself  with 
the  assurance  that,  even  after  worms  had  destroyed  his  body,  he  was 
in  the  flesh  to  see  God.  Had  Professor  Oken  been  one  of  his  com- 
forters, he  would  have  sought  to  restrict  his  hopes  to  the  prospect  of 
living  in  the  worms.  "  If  the  organic  fundamental  substance  consist 
of  infusoria,"  says  the  Professor,  "  so  must  the  whole  organic  world 
origiiiate  from  infusoria.  Plants  and  animals  can  only  be  metamor- 
phoses of  infusoria.  This  being  granted,  so  also  must  all  organiza- 
tions consist  of  infusoria,  and,  during  their  destruction,  dissolve  into 
the  same.  Every  plant,  every  animal,  is  converted  by  maceration 
into  a  mucous  mass;  this  putrefies,  and  the  moisture  is  stocked 
with  infusoria.  Putrefaction  is  nothing  else  than  a  division 
of  organisms  into  infusoria,  —  a  reduction  of  the  higher  to  the 
primary  life.  •  *  *  «  Death  is  no  anniliilation,  but  only  a 
change.  One  individual  emerges  out  of  another.  Death  is  only  a 
transition  to  ai  other  life,  —  not  into  death.  This  transition  from  one 
life  to  another  takes  place  through  the  primary  condition  of  the  or- 
ganic, or  tb3  mucus."  —  Physio-Philosophy,  pp.  187-189. 


AND   ITS   CONSEQTTENCES.  41 

progress  of  the  "  first  Adam  "  was  an  upward  progress  ;  the 
existence  of  the  "second  Adam"  —  that  "happier  man," 
according  to  Milton,  whose  special  work  it  is  to  "  restore " 
and  "  regain  the  blissful  seat "  of  the  lapsed  race  —  is  simply 
a  meaningless  anomaly.  Christianity,  if  the  development 
theory  be  true,  is  exactly  what  some  of  the  more  extreme 
Moderate  divines  of  the  last  age  used  to  make  it  —  an  idle 
and  unsightly  excrescence  on  a  code  of  morals  that  would  be 
perfect  were  it  away. 

I  may  be  in  error  in  takir.^g  this  serious  view  of  the  matter  ; 
and,  if  so,  would  feel  grateful  to  the  man  who  could  point  out 
to  me  that  special  link  in  the  chain  of  inference  at  which, 
with  respect  to  the  bearing  oT'the  theory  on  the  two  theolo- 
gies—  natural  and  revealed  —  the  mistake  has  taken- place. 
But  if  I  be  in  error  at  all,  it  is  an  error  into  which  I  find 
not  a  few  of  the  first  men  of  the  age,  —  represented,  as  a 
class,  by  our  Professor  Sedgwicks  and  Sir  David  Brewsters, 
—  have  also  fallen  ;  and  until  it  be  shown  to  le  an  error,  and 
that  the  development  theory  is  in  no  degree  incompatible 
with  a  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  —  in  the  responsi- 
bility of  man  to  God  as  the  final  Judge  —  or  in  the  Christian 
scheme  of  salvation  —  it  is  every  honest  man's  duty  to  protest 
against  any  ex  parte  statement  of  the  question,  that  would 
insidiously  represent  it  as  ethically  an  indifferent  one,  or  as 
unimportant  in  its  theologic  bearing,  save  to  "  little  religious 
sects  and  scientific  coteries."  In  an  address  on  the  fossil 
flora,  made  in  September  last  by  a  gentleman  of  Edinburgh 
to  the  St.  Andrew's  Horticultural  Society,  there  occurs  the 
following  passage  on  this  subject :  "  Life  is  governed  by 
external  conditions,  and  new  conditions  imply  new  races  ;  but 
then,  as  to  their  creation,  that  is  the  '  mystery  of  mysteries.^ 
Are  they  created  by  an  immediate  fiat  and  direct  act  of  the 
4* 


^  THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS, 

Alitiighty  <  or  has  He  originally  impressed  life  with  an  elas- 
ticity and  adaptability,  so  that  it  shall  take  upon  itself  new 
forms  and  characters,  according  to  the  conditions  to  which  it 
shall  be  subjected  ?  Each  opinion  has  had,  and  still  has,  its 
advocates  and  opponents  ;  but  the  truth  is,  that  science,  so  far 
as  it  knows,  or  rather  so  far  as  it  has  had  the  honesty  and 
courage  to  avow,  has  yet  been  unable  to  pronounce  a  satisfac- 
tory decision.  Either  way,  it  matters  little,  physically  or  mor- 
ally ,  either  mode  implies  the  same  omnipotence,  and  wisdom, 
and  foresight,  and  protection  ;  and  it  is  only  your  little  religious 
sects  and  scientific  coteries  which  make  a  pother  about  the 
matter,  —  sects  and  coteries  of  which  it  may  be  justly  said, 
that  they  would  almost  exclude  God  from  the  management 
of  his  own  world,  if  not  managed  and  directed  in  the  way 
that  they  would  have  it."  Now,  this  is  surely  a  most  unfair 
representation  of  the  consequences,  ethical  and  religious, 
involved  in  the  development  hypothesis.  It  is  not  its  com- 
patibility with  belief  in  the  existence  of  a  First  Great  Cause 
that  has  to  be  established,  in  order  to  prove  it  harmless  ;  but 
its  compatibility  with  certain  other  all-important  beliefs,  with- 
out which  simple  Theism  is  of  no  moral  value  whatever  —  a 
belief  in  the  immortality  and  responsibility  of  man,  and  in 
the  scheme  of  salvation  by  a  Mediator  and  Redeemer.  Dis- 
Bociated  from  these  beliefs,  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  a  God 
is  of  as  little  ethical  value  as  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  the 
great  sea-serpent. 

Let  us  see  whether  we  cannot  determine  what  the  testi- 
mony of  Geology,  on  this  question  of  creation  by  development, 
really  is.  It  is  always  perilous  to  under-estimate  the  strength 
of  an  enemy  ;  and  the  danger  from  the  development  hypoth- 
esis to  an  ingenious  order  of  minds,  smitten  with  the  novel 
fascinations  of  pnysical  science,  has  been  under-estimated  very 


AND   ITS   CONSEQUENCES.  43 

considerably  indeed.  Save  by  a  few  studious  men,  who  to 
the  cultivation  of  Geology  and  the  cognate  branches  add  some 
acquaintance  with  metaphysical  science,  the  general  corre- 
spondence of  the  line  of  assault  taken  up  by  this  new  school 
of  infidelity,  with  that  occupied  by  the  old,  and  the  conse- 
quent ability  of  the  assailants  to  bring,  not  only  the  recently 
forged,  but  also  the  previously  employed  artillery  into  full 
play  along  its  front,  has  not  only  not  been  marked,  but  even 
not  so  much  as  suspected.  And  yet,  in  order  to  show  that 
there  actually  is  such  a  correspondence,  it  can  be  but  neces- 
sary to  state,  that  the  great  antagonist  points  in  the  array  ofy* 
the  opposite  lines,  are  simply  the  law  of  development  versus 
the  miracle  of  creation.  The  evangelistic  Churches  cannot, 
in  consistency  with  their  character,  or  with  a  due  regard  to 
the  interests  of  their  people,  slight  or  overlook  a  form  of  error 
at  once  exceedingly  plausible  and  consummately  dangerous, 
and  which  is  telling  so  widely  on  society,  that  one  can  scarce 
travel  by  railway  or  in  a  steamboat,  or  encounter  a  group  of 
intelligent  mechanics,  without  finding  decided  trace  of  its 
ravages. 

But  ere  the  Churches  can  be  prepared  competently  to 
deal  with  it,  or  with  the  other  objections  of  a  similar  class 
which  the  infidelity  of  an  age  so  largely  engaged  as  the  pres- 
ent in  physical  pursuits  will  be  from  time  to  time  originating 
they  must  greatly  extend  their  educational  walks  into  the 
field  of  physical  science.  The  mighty  change  which  has 
taken  place  during  the  present  century,  in  the  direction  in 
which  the  minds  of  the  first  order  are  operating,  though 
indicated  on  the  face  of  the  country  in  characters  which 
cannot  be  mista.ien,  seems  to  have  too  much  escaped  the  no- 
tice of  our  theologians.  Speculative  theology  and  the  meta- 
physics are  cognate  branches  of  the  same  science  ;  and  when, 


44  THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS, 

as  in  the  last  and  the  preceding  ages,  the  higher  philosophy  of 
the  world  was  metaphysical,  the  Churches  took  ready  cogni- 
zance of  the  fact,  and,  in  due  accordance  with  the  requirements 
of  the  time,  the  battle  of  the  Evidences  was  fought  on  meta- 
physical ground.  But,  judging  from  the  preparations  made  in 
their  colleges  and  halls,  they  do  not  now  seem  sufficiently 
aware  —  though  the  low  thunder  of  every  railway,  and  the  snort 
of  every  steam  engine,  anfi  the  whistle  of  the  wind  amid  the 
wires  of  every  electric  telegraph,  serve  to  publish  the  fact 
—  that  it  is  in  the  departments  of  physics,  not  of  metaphys- 
ics, that  the  greater  minds  of  the  age  are  engaged,  —  that 
the  Lockes,  Humes,  Kants,  Berkeleys,  Dugald  Stewarts,  and 
Thomas  Browns,  belong  to  the  past,  —  and  that  the  philoso- 
phers of  the  present  time,  tall  enough  to  be  seen  all  the  world 
over,  are  the  Humboldts,  the  Aragos,  the  Agassizes,  the  Lie- 
bigs,  the  Owens,  the  Herschels,  the  Bucklands,  and  the  Brew- 
sters.  In  that  educational  course  through  which,  in  this  coun- 
try, candidates  for  the  ministry  pass,  in  preparation  for  their 
office,  I  find  every  group  of  great  minds  which  has  in  turn 
influenced  and  directed  the  mind  of  Europe  for  the  last  three 
centuries,  represented,  more  or  less  adequately,  save  the  last. 
It  is  an  epitome  of  all  kinds  of  learning,  with  the  exception 
of  the  kind  most  imperatively  required,  because  most  in 
accordance  with  the  genius  of  the  time.  The  restorers  of  clas- 
sic literature  — the  Buchanans  and  Erasmuses —  we  see  rep- 
resented in  our  Universities  by  the  Greek  and  what  are  termed 
the  Humanity  courses ;  the  Galileos,  Boyles,  and  Newtons,  by 
the  Mathematical  and  Natural  Philosophy  courses  ;  and  the 
Lockes,  Kants,  Humes,  and  Berkeleys,  by  the  Metaphysical 
course.  But  the  Cuviers,  the  Huttons,the  Cavendishes,  and  the 
Watts,  with  their  successors,  the  practical  philosophers  of  the 
present  age,  —  men  whose  achievements  ui  physical  science 


AND   ITS   CONSEQUENCES.  45 

we  find  marked  on  the  surface  of  the  country  in  characters 
which  nr-ight  be  read  from  the  moon, — are  not  adequately 
represented.  It  would  be  perhaps  more  correct  to  say,  that 
they  are  not  represented  at  all  ;  *  and  the  clergy,  as  a  class, 
sutfer  themselves  to  hnger  far  in  the  rear  of  an  intelligent  and 
accomplished  laity  —  a  full  age  behind  the  requirements  of 
the  time.  Let  them  not  shut  their  eyes  to  the  danger  which 
is  obviously  coming.  The  battle  of  the  Evidences  will  have 
as  certainly  to  be  fought  on  the  field  of  physical  science,  as 
it  was  contested  in  the  last  age  on  that  of  the  metaphysics. 
And  on  this  new  arena  the  combatants  will  have  to  employ 
new  weapons,  which  it  will  be  the  privilege  of  the  challenger 
to  choose.  The  old,  opposed  to  these,  would  prove  but  of 
little  avail.  In  an  age  of  muskets  and  artillery,  the  bows  and 
arrows  of  an  obsolete  school  of  warfare  would  be  found 
greatly  less  than  sufficient,  in  the  field  of  battie,  for  purposes 
either  of  assault  or  defence. 

"  There  are  two  kinds  of  generation  in  the  world,"  says 
Professor  Lorenz  Oken,  in  his  "  Elements  of  Physio-philoso- 
phy ; "  "  the  creation  proper,  and  the  propagation  that  is 
sequent  thereupon — or  the  generatio  originaria  and  secun- 
daria.  Consequently,  no  organism  has  been  created  of  larger 
size  than  an  infusorial  point.     No  organism  is,  nor  ever  has 


*  I  trust  that  at  least  by  and  by  there  may  be  tn  exception 
claimed,  from  the  general,  but,  I  am  sure,  well-meant,  censure  of 
this  passage,  in  favor  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland.  It  has 
got  as  its  Professor  of  Physical  Science  —  thanks  to  the  sagacity 
of  Chalmers  —  Dr.  John  Fleming,  a  man  of  European  reputation ; 
and  all  that  seems  further  necessary,  in  order  to  secure  the  benefits 
contemplated  in  the  appointment,  is,  that  attendance  on  his  course 
Bhould  be  rendered  imperative  on  aU  Free  Church,  candidates  for  the 
ministry. 


46  THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS. 

one  been,  created,  which  is  not  microscopic.  Whatever  is 
larger  has  not  been  created,  but  developed.  Man  has  not 
been  created,  but  developed."  Such,  in  a  few  brief  dogmatic 
sentences,  is  the  development  theory.  What,  in  order  to 
establish  its  truth,  or  even  to  render  it  in  some  degree  proba- 
ble, ought  to  be  the  geological  evidence  regarding  it  ?  The 
reply  seems  obvious.  In  the  first  place,  the  earlier  fossils 
ought  to  be  very  small  in  size ;  in  the  second,  very  low  in 
organization.  In  cutting  into  the  stony  womb  of  nature,  in 
order  to  determine  what  it  contained  mayhap  millions  of  ages 
ago,  we  must  expect,  if  the  development  theory  be  true,  to 
look  upon  mere  embrj'os  and  fcetuses.  And  if  we  find,  in- 
stead, the  full  grown  and  the  mature,  then  must  we  hold  that 
the  testimony  of  Geology  is  not  only  not  in  accordance  with 
the  theory,  but  in  positive  opposition  to  it.  Such,  palpably,  is 
the  principle  on  which,  in  this  matter,  we  ought  to  decide. 
What  are  the  facts  ? 

The  oldest  organism  yet  discovered  in  the  most  ancient 
geological  system  of  Scotland  in  which  vertebrate  remains 
occur,  seems  to  be  the  Asterolepis  of  Stromness.  After  the 
explorations  of  many  years  over  a  wide  area,  I  have  detected 
none  other  equally  low  in  the  system ;  nor  have  I  ascertained 
that  any  brother-explorer  in  the  same  field  has  been  more 
fortunate.  It  is,  up  to  the  present  time,  the  most  ancient 
Scotch  witness  of  the  great  class  of  fishes  that  can  in  this  case 
be  brought  into  court ;  nay,  it  is  in  all  probability  the  oldest 
ganoid  witness  the  world  has  yet  produced  ;  for  there  appears 
no  certain  trace  of  this  order  of  fishes  in  the  great  Silurian 
system  which  lies  underneath,  and  in  which,  so  far  as  geolo- 
gists yet  know,  organic  existence  first  began.  How,  then,  on 
ihe  two  relevant  points  —  bulk  and  organization  —  does  ii 
Answer  to  the  demands  of  the  development  hypothesis }   Was 


AND   ITS    CONSEQUENCES.  4T- 

it  a  mere  foetus  of  the  finny  tribe,  of  minute  size,  and  imper- 
fect, em  brj'onic  faculty  ?  Or  was  it  of  at  least  the  ordinary 
bulk,  and,  for  its  class,  of  the  average  organization  ?  May  I 
solicit  the  forbearance  of  the  non-geological  reader,  should 
my  reply  to  these  apparently  simple  questions  seem  unneces- 
sarily prolix  and  elaborate  ?  Peculiar  opportunities  of  obser- 
vation, and  the  possession  of  a  set  of  unique  fossils,  enable 
me  to  submit  to  our  paleontologists  a  certain  amount  of  in. 
formation  regarding  this  ancient  ganoid,  which  they  will  deem 
at  once  interesting  and  new ;  and  the  bearing  of  my  state- 
ments on  the  general  argument  will,  I  trust,  become  apparent 
as  I  proceed. 


48  BLCENT  HISTORY 


THE  KECEST  HISTORY  OF  THE  ASTEROLEPIS. 


ITS   FAMILY. 


It  had  been  long  known  to  the  continental  naturalists,  that 
in  certain  Russian  deposits,  very  extensively  developed,  there 
occur  in  considerable  abundance  certain  animal  organisms ; 
but  for  many  years  neither  their  position  nor  character  could 
be  satisfactorily  determined.  By  some  they  were  placed  too 
high  in  the  scale  of  organized  being  ;  by  others  too  low. 
Kutorga,  a  writer  not  very  familiarly  known  in  this  country, 
described  the  remains  as  those  of  mammals;  —  the  Russian 
rocks  contained,  he  said,  bones  of  quadrupeds,  and,  in  espe- 
cial, the  teeth  of  swine :  whereas  Lamarck,  a  better  known 
authority,  though  not  invariably  a  safe  one,  —  for  he  had 
a  trick  of  dreaming  when  wide  awake,  and  of  calling  his 
dreams  philosophy,  —  assigned  to  them  a  place  among  the 
corals.  They  belonged,  he  asserted,  as  shown  by  certain 
star-like  markings  with  which  they  are  fretted,  to  the  Poly- 
paria.  He  even  erected  for  their  reception  a  new  genus  of 
Astrea,which  he  designated,  from  the  little  rounded  hillcck 
which  rises  in  the  middle  of  each  star,  the  genus  Monticu- 
laria.  It  was  left  to  a  living  naturalist,  M.  Eichwald,  to  fix 
their  true  position  zoologically  among  the  class  of  fishes,  and 
to  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  to  determine  their  position  geologi- 
cally as  ichthyolites  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone. 


OF    THE   ASTEROLEPIS.  49_ 

Sir  Roderick,  on  his  return  from  his  great  Russian  cam- 
paigns, in  which  he  fared  far  otherwise  than  Napoleon, 
j-nd  accomplished  more,  submitted  to  Agassiz  a  series  of 
fragments  of  these  gigantic  Ganoids ;  and  the  celebrated 
ichthyologist,  who  had  been  introcuced  little  more  than  a 
twelvemonth  before  to  the  Ptericlithys  of  Cromarty,  was  at 
fira-  inclined  to  regard  them  as  the  remains  of  a  large  cui- 
rassed  fish  of  the  Cephalaspian  type,  but  generically  new. 
Under  this  impression  he  bestowed  upon  the  yet  unknown 
ichthyolite  of  which  they  had  formed  part,  the  name  Che- 
loniclUhys,  from  the  resemblance  borne  by  the  broken  plates 
to  those  of  the  carapace  and  plastron  of  some  of  the  Che- 
lonians.  At  this  stage,  however,  the  Russian  Old  Red 
yielded  a  set  of  greatly  finer  remains  than  it  had  previously 
furnished  ;  and  of  these,  casts  were  transmitted  by  Profes- 
sor Asm  us,  of  the  University  of  Dorpat,  to  the  British  and 
London  Geological  Museums,  and  to  Agassiz.  "  I  knew  not 
at  first  what  to  do,"  says  the  ichthyologist,  "  with  bones 
of  so  singular  a  conformation  that  I  could  refer  them  to 
no  known  type."  Detecting,  however,  on  their  exterior 
surfaces  the  star-like  markings  which  had  misled  Lamarck, 
and  which  he  had  also  detected  on  the  lesser  fragments  sub- 
mitted to  him  by  Sir  Roderick,  he  succeeded  in  identifying 
both  the  fragments  and  bones  as  remains  of  the  same  genus 
and  on  ascertaining  that  M.  Eichwald  had  bestowed  upon 
it,  from  these  characteristic  sculpturings,  the  generic  name 
Asterolepis,  or  star-scale,  he  suffered  the  name  which  he 
himself  had  originated  to  drop.  Even  this  second  name, 
however,  which  the  ichthyolite  still  continues  to  bear,  is 
in  some  degree  founded  in  error.  Its  true  scales,  as  I  shall 
by  and  by  show,  were  not  stelliferous,  but  fretted  by  a  pecu- 
Imr  style  of  ornament,  consisting  of  waved  anastomosing 
5 


50  EECENT    HISTORY 

ridges,  breaking  atop  into  angular-shaped  d  )ts,  scooped  ou' 
internally  like  the  letter  V ;  and  were  evidently  intermedi 
ate  in  their  character  between  the  scales  which  cover  the 
Glyptolepis  and  those  of  the  Holoptychius.  And  the  stellate 
markings  which  M.  Eichwald  graphically  describes  as  mi- 
nute paps  rising  out  of  the  middle  of  star-like  wreaths  of 
little  leaflets,  were  restricted  to  the  derraai  plates  of  the 
head. 

Agassiz  ultimately  succeeded  in  classing  the  bones  which 
had  at  first  so  puzzled  him,  into  two  divisions  —  interior  and 
dermal ;  and  the  latter  he  divided  yet  further,  though  not 
without  first  lodging  a  precautionary  protest,  founded  on  the 
extreme  obscurity  of  the  subject,  into  cranial  and  opercular. 
Of  the  interior  bones  he  specified  two,  —  a  super-scapular 
bone,  (supra-scapulaire,)  —  that  bone  which  in  osseous  fishes 
completes  the  scapular  arch  or  belt,  by  uniting  the  scapula  to 
the  cranium  ;  and  a  maxillary  or  upper  jaw-bone.  But  his 
world-wide  acquaintance  with  existing  fishes  could  lend 
him  no  assistance  in  determining  the  places  of  the  dermal 
bones :  they  formed  the  mere  fragments  of  a  broken  puzzle, 
of  which  the  key  was  lost.  Even  in  their  detached  and  irre- 
ducible state,  however,  he  succeeded  in  basing  upon  them 
several  shrewd  deductions.  He  inferred,  in  the  first  place, 
that  the  Asterolepis  was  not,  as  had  been  at  first  supposed,  a 
cuirassed  fish,  which  took  its  place  among  the  Cephalaspians, 
but  a  strongly  helmed  fish  of  that  Coelacanth  family  to  which 
the  Holoptychius  and  Glyptolepis  belong  ;  in  the  second,  that, 
like  several  of  its  bulkier  cogeners,  it  was  in  all  probability 
a  broad,  flat-headed  animal ;  and,  in  the  third,  that  as  its  re- 
mains are  found  associated  in  the  Russian  beds  with  nume- 
rous detached  teeth  of  large  size,  —  the  boar  tusks  of  Ku- 
■orga,  —  which  present  internally  that  peculiar  microscopic 


OF    THE    ASTEKOLEPIS. 


51 


character  on  which  Professor  Owen  has  erected  his  Den- 
drodic  or  tree-toothed  family  of  fishes,  —  it  would  in  all  like- 
lihood be  found  that  both  bones  and  teeth  belonged  to  the 
same  group.  "  It  appears  more  than  probable,"  he  said, 
"  that  one  day,  by  the  discovery  of  a  head  or  an  entire  jaw, 
it  will  be  shown  that  the  genera  Dendrodus  and  Asterolepis 
form  but  one.'*  As  we  proceed,  the  reader  will  see  how 
justly  the  ichthyologist  assigned  to  the  Asterolepis  its  place 
among  the  CcElacanths,  and  how  entirely  his  two  other  con- 
jectures regarding  it  have  been  confirmed.  "  I  have  had  in 
general,"  he  concluded,  "  but  small  dnd  mutilated  fragments 
of  the  creature's  bones  submitted  to  me,  and  of  these,  even 
the  surface  ornaments  not  well  preserved  ;  but  I  hope  the 
immense  materials  with  which  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  of 
Russia  has  furnished  the  savans  of  that  country  will  not  be 
lost  to  science  ;  and  that  my  labors  on  this  interesting  genus, 
incomplete  as  they  are,  will  excite  more  and  more  the  atten- 
tion of  geologists,  by  showing  them  how  ignorant  we  are  of 
all  the  essential  facts  concerning  the  history  of  the  first  inhab- 
itants of  our  globe." 

I  know  not  what  the  savans  of  Russia  have  been  doing  for 
the  last  few  years  ;  but  mainly  through  the  labors  of  an 
intelligent  tradesman  of  Thurso,  Mr.  Robert  Dick,  —  one  of 
those  working  men  of  Scotland  of  active  curiosity  and  well- 
developed  intellect,  that  give  character  and  standing  to  the 
rest,  —  I  am  enabled  to  justify  the  classification  and  confirm 
the  conjectures  of  Agassiz.  Mr.  Dick,  after  acquainting  him- 
self, in  the  leisure  hours  of  a  laborious  profession,  with  the 
shells,  insects,  and  plants  of  the  northern  locality  in  which 
he  resides,  had  set  himself  to  study  its  geology ;  and  with 
this  view  he  procured  a  cooy  of  the  little  treatise  on  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone  to  which  1  have  already  referred,  and  whicli 


52  RECENT   HISTORY    OF   THE   ASTEROLEPIS. 

was  at  that  time,  as  Agassiz's  Monograph  of  the  Old  Red 
fishes  had  not  yet  appeared,  the  only  work  specially  devoted 
to  the  palaeontology  of  the  system,  so  largely  developed  ia 
the  neighborhood  of  Thurso.  With  perhaps  a  single  excep- 
tion,—  for  the  Thurso  rocks  do  not  yet  seem  to  have  yielded 
a  Pterichthys, —  he  succeeded  in  finding  specimens,  in  a  state 
of  better  or  worse  keeping,  of  all  the  various  ichthyolites  which 
I  had  described  as  peculiar  to  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone. 
He  found,  however,  what  I  had  not  described,  —  the  remains 
of  apparently  a  very  gigantic  ichthyolite  ;  and,  communi- 
cating with  me  through  the  medium  of  a  common  friend,  he 
submitted  to  me,  in  the  first  instance,  drawings  of  his  new 
set  of  fossils ;  and  ultimately,  as  I  could  arrive  at  no  sat- 
isfactory conclusion  from  the  drawings,  he  with  great  liber- 
ality made  over  to  me  the  fossils  themselves.  Agassiz's 
Monograph  was  not  yet  published  ;  nor  had  I  an  opportu- 
nity of  examining,  until  about  a  twelvemonth  after,  the 
casts,  in  the  British  Museum,  of  the  fossils  of  Professor 
Asmus.  Besides,  all  the  little  information,  derived  from 
various  sources,  which  I  had  acquired  respecting  the  Rus- 
sian CJielonichf.hys,  —  for  such  was  its  name  at  the  time,  — 
referred  it  to  the  cuirassed  type,  and  served  but  to  mislead. 
I  was  assured,  for  instance,  that  Professor  Asmus  regarded 
his  set  of  remains  as  portions  of  the  plates  and  paddles 
of  a  gigantic  Ptericlithys,  of  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  in 
length.  And  so,  as  I  had  recognized  in  the  Thurso  fossils 
the  peculiarities  of  the  Holoptychian  (Coelacanth)  family,  1 
at  first  failed  to  identify  them  with  the  remains  of  the  great 
Russian  fish.  All  the  larger  bones  sent  me  by  Mr.  Dick 
were,  I  found,  cerebral ;  and  the  scales  associated  with 
these  'jidicated,  not  a  cuirass-protected,  but  a  scale-covered 
body   and  exhibited,  in  their  sculptured  and  broadly  imbri- 


FAMILY    OF    THE    ASTEROLEPIS.  Od 

cated  surfaces,  the  well-marked  Coelacanth  style  of  disposition 
and  ornament.  But  though  I  could  not  recognize  in  either 
bones  or  scales  the  remains  of  one  ichthyolite  more  of  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone,  "  that  could  be  regarded  as  manifesting 
as  peculiar  a  type  among  fishes  as  do  the  Ichthyosauri  and 
Plesiosauri  among  reptiles,"  *  I  was  engaged  at  the  time  in 
a  course  of  inquiry  regarding  the  cerebral  development  of 
the  earlier  vertebrata,  that  made  me  deem  them  scarce  less 
interesting  than  if  I  could.  Ere,  however,  I  attempt  com- 
municating to  the  reader  the  result  of  my  researches,  I  must 
introduce  iiim,  in  order  that  he  may  be  able  to  set  out  with 
me  to  the  examination  of  the  Aslerolepis  from  the  same  start- 
ing-point, to  the  Ccelacanth  family,  —  indisputably  one  of  the 
oldest,  and  not  the  least  interesting,  of  its  order. 

So  far  as  is  yet  known,  all  the  fish  of  the  earliest  fossilif- 
erous  system  belonged  to  the  placoid  or  "  broad  plated  "  order, 
—  a  great  division  of  fishes,  represented  in  the  existing  seas 
by  the  Sharks  and  Rays,  —  animals  that  to  an  internal  skele- 
ton of  cartilage  unite  a  dermal  covering  of  points,  plates,  or 
spines  of  enamelled  bone,  and  have  their  gills  fixed.  The 
dermal  or  cuticular  bones  of  this  order  vary  greatly  in 
form,  according  to  the  species  or  family  :  in  some  cases  they 
even  vary,  according  to  their  place,  on  the  same  individual. 
Those  button-like  tubercles,  for  instance,  with  an  enamelled 
Jiorn,  bent  like  a  hook,  growing  out  of  the  centre  of  each, 
which  run  down  the  back  and  tail,  and  stud  the  pectorals  of  the 
thorn-back,  {Raja  clavata,)  differ  very  much  from  the  smaller 
thorns,  with  star-formed  bases,  which  roughen  the  other  parts 
of  the  creature's  body ;  and  the   bony  points  which  mottle 


*  Agassiz's  description  of  the  Pterichthys,  as  quoted  by  Humboldt, 
in  his  Cosmos. 


54 


FAMILY 


ris 


the  back  and  sides  of  the  siarks  are,  in  most  of  the  known 
species,  considerably  more  elongated  and  prickly  than  the 
points  which  cover  their  fins,  belly,  and  snout.  The  extreme 
forms,  however,  of  the  shagreen  tubercle  or  plate  seem  to  be 
those  of  the  upright  prickle  or  spine  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
the  slant-laid,  rhomboidal,  scale-shaped  plate  on  the  other. 
The  minuter  thorns  of  the  ray 
(fig.  2,  a)  exemplify  the  extreme 
of  the  prickly  type  ;  the  fins,  ab- 
domen, and  anterior  part  of  the 
head  of  the  spotted  dog-fish  (Scy Ili- 
um stellare)  are  covered  by  lozenge- 
shaped  little  plates,  which  glisten 
with  enamel,  and  are  so  thickly  set 
that  they  cover  the  entire  surface  of 
the  skin,  (fig.  3,  b,)  —  and  these 
a  Shoffreen  of  the  T/tornback    seem  equally  illustrative  of  the  scale- 

CRajaclacata.)  jji^e    form.      They    are     shagreen 

b  Shagreen  of  iSphagodtts, —         ... 

a  placoid  of  the  Upper    P^mts   passmg  mto  osseous  scales, 

Silurian*  without,  however,   becoming  really 

such  ;  though  they  approach  them  so  nearly  in  the  shape  and 
disposition  of  their  upper  disks,  that  the  true  scales,  also  osse- 
ous, of  the  Acanlhodes  sulcatus,  (fig.  3,  a,)  a  Ganoid  of  the  Coal 
Measures,  can  scarce  be  distinguished  from  them,  even  when 
microscopically  examined.  It  is  only  when  seen  in  section 
tliat  the  d'stinctive  difference  appears.  The  true  scale  of  the 
Acanthodes,  though  considerably  elevated  in  the  centre,  seems 
to  have  been  planted  on  the  skin ;  whereas  the  scale-like  sha- 
green of  the  dog-fish  is  elevated  over  it  on  an  osseous  pedicle  or 
footstalk  (fig.  5,  a)  as  a  mushroom  is  elevated  over  the  sward 


•  From  Murchison's  Silurian  System. 


OF    THE   ASTEROLEPIS.  55 

on  its  Stem  ;    and   the  base  of  the   stalk  Fig,  3. 

is  found  to  resemble  in  its  stellate  charac- 
ter that  of  a  shagreen  point  of  the  prickly 
type,.  The  apparent  scale  is,  we  find,  a 
bony  prickle  bent  at  right  angles  a  little 
over  its  base,  and  flattened  into  a  rhom- 
boidal  disk  atop. 

In    small  fragments   of  shagreen,    (fig. 
2,  b)  which  have  been  detected  in  the 

i_    J      f    iU       TT  T     ji         Ti      1        a.  Scales  of  Acanthodes 

Done- bed   ot    the    Upper  Ludlow  Kocks,  ,   / 

(Upper  Silurian,)  and  constitute  the  most  \).  SJmgreenofScyiHum 

ancient  portions  of  this  substance  known  ,„  ^tellare,  {Snout.) 

(Mag.  eight  diameters.) 
to  the  palaeontologist,  the  osseous  tuber- 
cles are,  as  in  the  minuter  spikes  of  the  ray,  of  the  upright 
thorn-like  type  ;  they  merely  serve  to  show  that  the  pla- 
coids  of  the  first  period  possesssed,  like  those  of  the  exist- 
ing seas,  an  ability  of  secreting  solid  bone  on  their  cuticular 
surfaces ;  and  that,  though  at  least  such  of  them  as  have 
bequeathed  to  us  specimens  of  their  dermal  armature  pos- 
sessed it  in  the  form  farthest  removed  from  that  of  their  im- 
mediate successors  the  ganoid  fishes,  they  resembled  them 
not  less  in  the  substance  of  which  their  dermoskeletal,  than 
in  that  of  which  their  endoskeletal,  parts  were  composed. 
For  the  internal  skeleton  in  both  orders,  during  these  early 
ages,  seems  to  have  been  equally  cartilaginous,  and  the  cutic- 
ular skeleton  equally  osseous.  In  the  ichthyolitic  formation 
immediately  over  the  Silurians,  —  that  of  the  Lower  Old  Red 
Sandstone,  —  the  Ganoids  first  appear;  and  the  members 
of  at  least  one  of  the  families  of  the  deposit,  the  Acanths, 
—  a  family  rich  in  genera  and  species, —  seem  to  have 
formed  connecting  Tuiks  between  this  second  order  and 
their   placoid  predecessors.     They  were  covered  with   true 


56 


Hsr.  4. 


a.  Scales    of  Cheiracan- 

thits  microlepidotus. 

b.  Shofireen    of    Spinax 

Acanthias.    (Snout.) 
(Mag.  eight  diameters.) 

Fisr.  5. 


scales,  (fig.  4,  a,)  and  their  free  gills  were  protected  by  gill- 
covers;  and  so  they  must  be  regarded 
as  real  Ganoids ;  but  as  the  shagreen 
of  the  spotted  dog-fish  nearly  ap- 
proaches, in  form  and  character,  to  ga- 
noid scales,  without  being  really  such, 
the  scales  of  this  family,  on  the  other 
hand,  approached  equally  near,  without 
changing  their  nature,  to  the  shagreen 
of  the  Placoids,  especially  to  that  of  the 
spiked  dogfish,  (Spinax  Acanthias.) 
(Fig.  4,  h.)  We  even  find  on  their  under 
surfaces  what  seems  to  be  an  approxi- 
mation to  the  characteristic  footstalk. 
They  so  considerably  thicken  in  the 
middle  from  their  edges  inwards,  (fig. 
5,  c,)  as  to  terminate  in  their  centres 
in  obtuse  points.  With  these  shagreen- 
like scales,  the  heads,  bodies,  and 
fins  of  all  the  species  of  at  least  two 
of  the  Acanth  genera, —  Cheiracan- 
thus  and  DipJ acanthus,  —  were  as  thick- 
ly covered  as  the  heads,  bodies,  and 
fins  of  the  sharks  are  with  their  sha- 
green ;  and  so  slight  was  the  degree 
of  imbrication,  that  the  portion  of  each 
scale  overlaid  by  the  two  scales  in 
immediate  advance  of  it  did  not  ex- 
ceed the  one  twelfth  part  of  its  entire  area.  In  the  scale  of 
the  Cheii'acanlhus  we  find  the  covered  portion  indicated  by  a 
smooth,  narrow  band,  that  ran  along  its  anterior  edges,  and 
which  the  furrows  that  fretted  the  exposed  surface  did  not 


a.  Section  of  shagreen  of 

Scyllium  stellare. 

b.  Under  surface  of  do. 

c.  Section    of  scales    of 

Cheiracanthus  micro- 

lepidottts. 
A.  Under  surface  of  do. 
(Mag.   eight   diameters.) 


OF   THE   ASTEROLEPIS. 


57 


traverse.  It  may  be  added,  that  both  genera  had  the  anterior 
edge  of  their  fins  armed  with  strong  spines,  —  a  characteris- 
tic of  several  of  the  Placoid  families. 

In  the  Dipterian  genera  Osteolepis  and  Diplopterus  the  scales 
were  more  unequivocally  such 
than  in  the  Acauths,  and  more 
removed  from  shagreen.  The 
under  surface  of  each  was 
traversed  longitudinally  by  a 
raised  bar,  which  attached  it 
to  the  skin,  and  which,  in  the 
transverse  section,  serves  to 
remind  one  of  the  shagreen 
footstalk.  They  are,  besides, 
of  a  rhomboidal  form ;  and, 
when  seen  in  the  finer  speci- 
mens, lying  in  their  proper 
places  on  what  had  been  once 
the  creature's  body,  they  seem 
merely  laid  down  side  by  side 
in  line,  like  those  rows  of 
glazed  tiles  that  pave  a  cathe- 
dral floor;  but  on  more  care- 
ful examination,  we  find  that 
each    little    tile    was     deeply 

grooved  on   its  higher  side   and    (The  single  scales  mag.  two  diame- 

di c      ■»  1        J-    _        n     •_  ters ;  —  the  others  nat.  size.) 

,  (for  It  lay  diagonally  m  re-  '  -' 

lation  to  the  head,)  like  the  flags  of  a  stone  roof,  (fig.  6,  a,) — ■ 


Scales  of  Osteolepis  mtcrolepido- 

ttis. 
Scales  of  an  undeserved  species  of 

GlyptolepisJ 


*  These  scales,  which  occur  in  a  detached  state,  in  a  stratified  clay 
of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  near  Cromarty,  present  for  their  size  a 
larger  extent  of  cover  than  the  scales  of  any  other  Ganoid. 


58        '  FAMILY 

that  its  lateral  and  anteriei  neighbors  impinged  upon  it  along 
these  grooves  to  the  extent  of  about  one  third  its  area,  —  and 
that  it  impinged,  in  turn,  to  the  same  extent  on  the  scales  that 
bordered  on  it  posteriorly  and  latero-posteriorly.  Now,  in 
the  Ccelacanth  family,  (and  on  this  special  point  the  foregoing 
rerna?  ks  are  intended  to  bear,)  the  scales,  which  were  gen- 
erally of  a  round  or  irregularly  oval  form,  (fig.  6,  b,)  over- 
lapped each  other  to  as  great  an  extent  as  in  any  of  the  exist- 
ing fishes  of  the  Cycloid  or  Ctenoid  orders,  —  to  as  great  an 
extent,  for  instance,  as  in  the  carp,  salmon,  or  herring.  In  a 
slated  roof  there  is  no  part  on  which  the  slates  do  not  lie 
double,  and  along  the  lower  edge  of  each  tier  they  lie  triple  ; 
—  there  is  more  of  slate  covered  than  of  slate  seen  :  where- 
as in  a  tile-roof,  the  covered  portion  is  restricted  to  a  small 
strip  running  along  the  top  and  one  of  the  edges  of  each  tile, 
and  the  tiles  do  not  lie  double  in  more  than  the  same  degree  in 
which  the  slates  lie  triple.  The  scaly  cover  of  the  two  gen- 
era of  Dipterians  to  which  I  have  referred  was  a  cover  on  the 
lile-roof  principle  ;  and  this  is  an  exceedingly  common  char- 
acteristic of  the  scales  of  the  Ganoids.  The  scaly  cover  of  the 
Coelacanths,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  cover  on  the  slate-roo^ 
principle  ;  —  there  was  in  some  of  their  genera  about  one  third 
more  of  each  scale  covered  than  exposed  ;  and  this  is  so  rare 
a  ganoidal  mode  of  arrangement,  that,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Dipterus,  —  a  genus  which,  though  it  gives  its  name  to 
the  Dipterian  sept,  differed  greatly  from  every  other  Dip- 
terian,  —  I  know  not,  beyond  the  Hmits  of  the  ancient  Ccel- 
acanth family,  a  single  Ganoid  that  possessed  it.  The  bony 
covering  of  the  CcElacanths  was  farthest  removed  in  character 
from  shagreen,  as  that  of  their  contemporaries  the  Acanths 
approximated  to  it  most  nearly  ;  they  were,  in  this  respect, 
the  two    extremes  of  their  order ;   and,    did  we   find   the 


OF  THE  ASTEROLEPIS.  59 

CcElacanths  in  but  the  later  geological  formations,  while  the 
Acanths  were  restricted  to  the  earlier,  it  might  be  argued 
by  assertors  of  the  development  hypothesis,  that  the  amply 
imbricated,  slate-like  scale  of  the  latter  had  been  developed 
in  the  lapse  of  ages  from  the  shagreen  tubercle,  by  passing 
in  its  downward  course  —  broadening  and  expanding  as  it 
descended  —  through  the  minute,  scarcely  imbricated  disks 
of  the  Acanths,  and  the  more  amply  imbricated  tile-like 
rhombs  of  the  Dipterians  and  Palseonisci,  until  it  had  reached 
its  full  extent  of  imbrication  in  the  familiar  modern  type 
exemplified  in  both  the  CcElacanths  and  the  ordinary  fishes. 
But  such  is  not  the  order  which  nature  has  observed  ;  —  the 
two  extremes  of  the  ganoid  scale  appear  together  in  the  same 
early  formation  :  both  become  extinct  at  a  period  geologically 
remote  ;  and  the  ganoid  scales  of  the  existing  state  of  things 
which  most  nearly  resemble  those  of  ancient  time  are  scales 
formed  on  the  intermediate  or  tile-roof  principle. 

The  scales  of  the  Ccelacanths  were,  in  almost  all  the 
genera  which  compose  the  family,  of  great  size  ;  in  some 
species,  of  the  greatest  size  to  which  this  kind  of  integu- 
ment ever  attained.  Of  a  Coelacanth  of  the  Coal  Measures, 
the  Holoptychius  Hibberti,  the  scales  in  the  larger  speci- 
mens were  occasionally  from  five  to  six  inches  in  diame- 
ter. Even  in  the  Holoptychivs  nobilissimus,  in  an  individual 
scarcely  exceeding  two  and  a  half  feet  in  length,  they  meas- 
ured from  an  inch  and  a  half  to  an  inch  and  three  quarters 
each  way.  In  the  splendid  specimen  of  this  last  species,  in 
the  British  Museum,  there  occur  but  fourteen  scales  between 
the  ventrals,  though  these  lie  low  on  the  creature's  bcdy, 
and  the  head  ;  and  in  a  specimen  of  a  smaller  species,  —  the 
Holoptychius  Andersoni^  —  but  about  seventeen.  The  exposed 
portion  of  *he  scale  was  in  most  species  of  the  family  curious- 


60  FAMILY 

ly  fretted  by  intermingled  ridges  and  furrows,  pits  and  nber- 
cles,  which  were  either  boldly  relieved,  as  in  the  Holoptychius., 
or  existed,  as  in  the  Glyptolepis,  as  slim,  delicately  chiselled 
threads,  lines,  and  dots.  The  head  was  covered  by  strong 
plates,  which  were  roughened  with  tubercles  either  confluent 
or  detached,  or  hollowed,  as  in  the  Bothriolepis,  into  shal- 
low pits.  The  jaws  were  thickly  set  with  an  outer  range  of 
true  fish  teeth,  and  more  thinly  with  an  inner  range  of  what 
seem  reptile  teeth,  that  stood  up,  tall  and  bulky,  behind  the 
others,  like  officers  on  horseback  seen  over  the  heads  of  their 
foot-soldiers  in  front.  The  double  fins,  —  pectorals  and  ven- 
trals,  —  were  characterized  each  by  a  thick,  angular,  scale- 
covered  centre,  fringed  by  the  rays ;  and  they  must  have 
borne  externally  somewhat  the  form  of  the  sweeping  paddles 
of  the  Ichthyosaurian  genus,  —  a  peculiarity  shared  also  by 
the  double  fins  of  the  Dipterus.  The  single  fins,  in  all  the 
members  of  the  family  of  which  specimens  have  been  found 
sufficiently  entire  to  indicate  the  fact,  were  four  in  number, — 
an  anal,  a  caudal,  and  two  dorsal  fins  ;  and,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  anterior  dorsal,  which  was  comparatively  small, 
and  bent  downwards  along  the  back,  as  if  its  rays  had  been 
distorted  when  young,*  they  were  all  of  large  size.  They 
crowded  thickly  on  the  posterior  portion  of  the  body,  —  the 
anterior  dorsal  opposite  the  ventrals,  and  the  posterior  dorsal 
opposite  the  anal  fin.  The  fin-rays  of  the  various  members 
of  the  family,  and  such  of  their  spinous  processes  as  have 
been  detected,  were  hollow  tubular  bones  ;  or  rather,  like  the 
larger  pieces  in  the  framework  of  the  Placoids,  they  were 
cartilaginous  within,  and  covered  externally  by  a  thin  osseous 

*  A  peculiarity  which  also  occurs  in  the  anterior  dorsal  of  the 
Diptertu. 


OF   THE    ASTEROLEPIS.  €1 

crust  or  shell,  which  alone  survives;  and  to  this  peculiarity 
they  owe  their  family  name,  Ccelacanth,  or  "  hollow-spine." 
The  internal  hollow,  i.  e.  cartilaginous  centre,  was,  however, 
equally  a  characteristic  of  the  spinous  processes  of  the  Coc- 
costeiis.  In  their  general  proportions,  the  Coelacanths,  if  we 
perhaps  except  one  species,  —  the  GlyptoUpis  microlepidotuSy 
—  were  all  squat,  robust,  strongly-built  fishes,  of  the  Dirk 
Hatterick  or  Balfour-of-Burley  type ;  and  not  only  in  the 
larger  specimens  gigantic  in  their  proportions,  but  remarkable 
for  the  strength  and  weight  of  their  armor,  even  when  of  but 
moderate  stature.  The  specimen  of  Holoptychius  noTnlissU 
THUS  in  the  British  Museum  could  have  measured  little  more 
than  three  feet  from  snout  to  tail  when  most  entire ;  but  it 
must  have  been  nearly  a  foot  in  breadth,  and  a  bullet  would 
have  rebounded  flattened  from  its  scales.  And  such  was  that 
ancient  Coelacanth  family,  of  which  the  oldest  of  our  Scotch 
Ganoids, —  the  Asterolepis  of  Stromness,  —  formed  one  of 
the  members,  and  which  for  untold  ages  has  had  no  living 
representative. 

Let  us  now  enter  on  our  proposed  inquiry  regarding  the 
cerebral  development  of  the  earlier  vertebrata,  and  see 
whether  we  cannot  ascertain  after  what  manner  the  first  true 
brains  were  lodged,  and  what  those  modifications  were  which 
their  protecting  box,  the  cranium,  received  in  the  subsequent 
periods.  Independently  of  its  own  special  interest,  the 
inquiry  will  b.9  found  to  have  a  direct  bearing  on  our  general 
subject. 


62  CEEEBEAL   DEVELOPMENT 


CEREBRAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  EARLIER 
VERTEBRATA. 

ITS   APPARENT    PRINCIPLE. 


It  is  held  by  a  class  of  naturalists,  some  of  them  of  the  high- 
est standing,  that  the  skulls  of  the  vertebrata  consist,  like  the 
columns  to  which  they  are  attached,  of  vertebral  joints,  com- 
posed each,  in  the  more  typical  forms  of  head,  as  they  are  in 
the  trunk,  of  five  parts  or  elements,  —  the  centrum  or  body, 
the  two  spinous  processes  which  enclose  the  spinal  cord,  and 
the  two  ribs.  These  cranial  vertebrae,  four  in  number,  cor- 
respond, it  is  said,  to  the  four  senses  that  have  their  seat 
in  the  head  :  there  is  the  nasal  vertebra,  the  centrum  of  which 
is  the  vomer,  its  spinal  processes  the  nasal  and  ethmoid 
bones,  and  its  ribs  the  upper  jaws ;  there  is  the  ocular  ver- 
tebra, the  centrum  of  which  is  the  anterior  portion  of  tVje 
s])henoid  bone,  hs  spinal  processes  the  frontals,  and  its 
ribs  the  under  jaws  ;  there  is  the  lingual  vertebra,  the  cen- 
trum of  which  is  the  posterior  sphenoid  bone,  its  spinal  pro- 
cesses the  parietals,  and  its  ribs  the  hyoid  and  branchial 
bones, —  portions  of  the  skeleton  largely  developed  in  fishes; 
and,  lastly,  there  is  the  auditory  vertebra,  the  centrum  of 
which  is  the  base  of  the  occipital  bone,  and  its  spinal  pro- 
cesses the  occipital  crest,  and  which  in  the  osseous  fishes 
bears  attached  to  it,  as  its  ribs,  the  bones  of  the  scapular 


OF    THE   EARLIER   VERTEBEATA.  63 

ring.  And  the  cerebral  segments  thus  constructed  we  find 
represented  in  typical  diagrams  of  the  skull,  as  real  verte- 
briE.  Professor  Owen,  in  his  lately  published  treatise  on 
"The  Nature  of  Limbs,"  —  a  work  charged  with  valuable 
fact,  and  instinct  with  philosophy,  —  figures  in  his  draught  of 
the  archetypal  skeleton  of  the  vertebrata,  the  four  verte.broB 
of  the  head,  in  a  form  as  unequivocally  such  as  any  of  the 
vcrtebnB  of  the  neck  or  body. 

,  Now,  for  certain  purposes  of  generalization,  I  doubt  not 
that  the  conception  may  have  its  value.  There  are  in  all 
nature  and  in  all  philosophy  certain  central  ideas  of  general 
bearing,  round  which,  at  distances  less  or  more  remote,  the 
subordinate  and  particular  ideas  arrange  themselves, 

"  Cycle  and  epicycle,  orb  in  orb." 

la  the  classifications  of  the  naturalist,  for  instance,  all  species 
range  round  some  central  generic  idea  ;  all  genera  round  some 
central  idea,  to  which  we  give  the  name  of  order  ;  all  orders 
round  some  central  idea  of  class;  all  classes  round  some 
central  idea  of  division ;  and  all  divisions  round  the  interior 
central  idea  which  constitutes  a  kingdom.  Sir  Joshua  Rey- 
nolds forms  his  theory  of  beauty  on  this  principle  of  central 
ideas.  "  Every  species  of  the  animal,  as  well  as  of  the  vege- 
table creation,"  he  remarks,  "  may  be  said  to  have  a  fixed  or 
determinate  form,  towards  which  nature  is  continually  inclin- 
ing, like  various  lines  terminating  in  a  centre  ;  or  it  may  be 
compared  to  pendulums  vibrating  in  different  directions  ovei 
one  central  point,  which  they  all  cross,  though  only  one  of 
their  number  passes  through  any  other  point."  He  iu' 
stances,  in  illustrating  his  theory,  the  Grecian  heau  rdeal 
of  the  human  nose,  as  seen  in  the  statues  of  the  Greek  dei- 
ties.    It  formed  a  straight  line  ;    whereas  all  deformity  of 


b4  CEREBBAL    DEVELOPMENT 

nose  is  of  a  convex  or  concave  character,  and  occasiened  by 
either  a  rising  above  or  a  sinking  below  this  medial  line  of 
beauty.  And  it  may  be  of  use,  as  it  is  unquestionably  of  in- 
terest, to  conceive,  after  this  manner,  of  a  certain  type  of 
skeleton,  embodying,  as  it  were,  the  central  or  primary  type 
of  all  vertebral  skeletons,  and  consisting  of  a  double  range 
of  rings,  united  by  the  bodies  of  the  vertebrae,  as  the  two 
rings  of  a  figure  8  are  united  at  their  point  of  junction  ;  the 
upper  ring  forming  the  enclosure  of  the  brain,  —  spinal,  and 
cephalic ;  the  lower  that  of  the  viscera,  —  respiratory,  circu- 
latory, and  digestive.  Such  is  the  idea  embodied  in  Professor 
Owen's  archetypal  skeleton.  It  is  a  series  of  vertebrae 
composing  double  rings,  —  their  brain-rings  comparatively 
small  in  the  vertebrae  of  the  trunk,  but  of  much  greater  size 
in  the  vertebras  of  the  head.  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  that 
central  ideas,  however  necessary  to  the  classification  of  the 
naturalist,  are  not  historic  facts.  We  may  safely  hold, 
with  the  philosophic  painter,  that  the  outline  of  the  typi- 
cal human  nose  is  a  straight  line  ;  but  it  would  be  very  un- 
safe to  hold,  as  a  consequence,  that  the  first  men  had  all 
straight  noses."  And  when  we  find  it  urged  by  at  least  one 
eminent  assertor  of  the  development  hypothesis,  —  Professor 
Oken,  —  that  light  was  the  main  agent  in  developing  the  sub- 
stance of  nerve,  —  that  the  nerves,  ranged  in  pairs,  in  turn 
developed  the  vertebrae,  each  vertebra  being  but  "  the  peri- 
phery or  envelope  of  a  pair  of  nerves,"  —  and  that  the 
nerves  of  those  four  senses  of  smell,  sight,  taste,  and  hearing, 
which,  according  to  the  Professor,  "  make  up  the  head,"  origi- 
nated the  four  cranial  vertebrae  which  constitute  the  skull,  -*' 
it  becomes  us  to  test  the  central  idea,  thus  converted  into 
n  sort  of  historic  myth,  by  the  realities  of  actual  history. 


OF  THE  EARLIER  VERTEBRATA.  65 

What,  then,  let  us  inquire,  is  the  real  history  of  the  cerebral 
development  of  the  vertebrata,  as  recorded  in  the  rocks  of  the 
earlier  geologic  periods  ? 

Though  the  vertebrata  existed  in  the  ichthyic  form  through- 
out the  vastly  extended  Silurian  period,  *ve  find  in  that  system 
no  remains  of  the  cranium  :  the  Silurian  fishes  seem,  as  has 
been  already  said,  (page  53,)  to  have  been  exclusively  Fla- 
ccid ,  and  the  purely  cartilaginous  box  formed  by  nature  for 
the  protection  of  the  brain  in  this  order  has  in  no  case  been 
preserved.  Teeth,  and,  in  at  least  one  or  two  instances,  the 
minute  jaws  over  which  they  were  planted  have  been  found, 
but  no  portion  of  the  skull.  We  know,  however,  that  in  the 
fishes  of  the  same  order  which  now  exist,  the  cranium  con- 
sists of  one  undivided  piece  of  a  cartilaginous  substance,  set 
thickly  over  its  outer  surface  with  minute  polygonal  points  of 
bone,  (fig.  7,)  composed   internally  of  p-     - 

star-like  rays,  that  radiate  from  the 
centre  of  ossification,  and  that  pre- 
sent, in  consequence,  seen  through  a 
microscope,  the  appearance  of  the 
polygonal  cells  of  a  coral  of  the  genus 
Astrea.  The  pattern  induced  is  that  osseous  points  ofplacoid 
of  stars   set  within  polygons.      Along  cranium* 

^,  .J  ,  c    .\  •  u     1  (Mag.  twelve  diameters.) 

the    sides    or    top    of    this    unbroken    ^     *  ' 

cranial    box,  that   exhibits   no   mark  of  suture,  we  find  the 

perforations  through  which  the  nerves  of  smell,  sight,  taste, 

and  hearing  passed  from  the  brain  outwards,  and  see  that  they 

have  failed  to  originate  distinct  vertebral  envelopes  for  them 

selves;  —  they  all   lodge    in   one   undivided  mansion-house, 

and  have  merely  separate  doors.     We  find,  further,  that  the 


*  From  the  head  of  Rcya  clavata. 
6* 


66  CEREBRAL    DEVELOPMENT 

homotypal  ribs  of  the  entire  cranium  consist,  not  of  four,  but 
simply  of  a  single  pair,  attached  to  the  occiput,  and  which 
serves  both  to  suspend  the  jaws,  upper  and  nether,  in  their 
place  under  the  middle  of  the  head,  and  to  lend  support  to 
the  hyoid  and  branchial  framework  ;  while  the  scapular  ring 
we  find  existing,  as  in  the  higher  vertebrata,  not  as  a  cere- 
bral, but  ?^  a  cervical  or  dorsal  appendage.  In  the  wide 
range  of  the  animal  kingdom  there  are  scarce  any  two 
pieces  of  organization  that  less  resemble  one  another  in 
form  than  the  vertebrae  of  the  placoids  resemble  their  skulls ; 
and  the  difference  is  not  merely  external,  but  extends  to 
even  their  internal  construction.  In  both  skull  and  vertebrae 
we  detect  an  union  of  bone  and  cartilage ;  but  the  bone  of 
each  vertebra  forms  an  internal  continuous  nucleus,  round 
which  the  cartilage  is  arranged ,  whereas  in  the  skulls  it 
is  the  cartilage  that  is  internal,  and  the  bone  is  spread  in 
granular  points  over  it.  If  we  dip  the  body  of  one  of  the 
dorsal  vertebrse  of  a  herring  into  melted  wax,  and  then  with- 
draw it,  we  will  find  it  to  represent  in  its  crusted  state  the  ver- 
tebral centrum  of  aPlacoid,  —  soft  without,  and  osseous  with- 
in ;  but  in  order  to  represent  the  placoid  skull,  we  would  have 
first  to  mould  it  out  of  one  unbroken  piece  of  wax,  and  then 
to  cover  it  over  with  a  priming  of  bone-dust.  And  such  is 
the  effect  of  this  arrangement,  that,  while  the  skull  of  a 
Placoid,  exposed  to  a  red  heat,  falls  into  dust,  from  the  cir- 
cumstance that  the  supporting  framework  on  which  the  gran- 
ular bone  was  arranged  perishes  in  the  fire,  the  vertebral 
centrum,  whose  internal  framework  is  itself  bone,  and  so  not 
perishable,  comes  out  in  a  state  of  beautiful  entireness,  —  re- 
sembling in  the  thornback  a  squat  sand-glass,  elegantly  fenced 
round  by  the  lateral  pillars,  (fig.  8,  i ;)  and  in  the  dog-fish  (a) 
a  more  elongated  sand-glass,  in  whic  .  the  Nteral  pillars  are 


OF    THE    EARLIER   VERTEBRAl  A.  67 

wanting.  Such  are  the  heads  and  ver- 
tebral joints  of  the  existing  Placoids ; 
and  sucli,  reasoning  from  analogy,  seem 
to  have  been  the  character  and  construc- 
tion of  the  heads  and  vertebral  joints 
of  the  Placoids  of  the  Silurian  period, —   a.  Osseous  centrum  of 

earliest-born  of  the  Vertebrata.  ,   f^"'«^  Acanthias 

0.  Osseous  centrum  of 
The    most    ancient  brain-bearing    era-        Bxija  clavata. 

niums  that  have  come  down  to  us  in  r^^^  gj^g  n 
the  fossil  state,  are  those  of  the  Ganoids 
of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone ;  and  in  these  fishes  the 
true  skull  appears  to  have  been  as  entirely  a  simple  carti- 
laginous box,  as  that  of  the  Placoids  of  either  the  Silurian 
period  or  of  the  present  time,  or  of  those  existing  Ganoids, 
the  sturgeons.  In  the  Lower  Old  Red  genera  Cheir acanthus 
and  Diplacanthus,  though  the  heads  are  frequently  preserved 
as  amorphous  masses  of  colored  matter,  we  detect  no  trace 
of  internal  bone,  save  perhaps  in  the  gill-covers  of  the  first- 
named  genus,  which  were  fringed  by  from  eighteen  to  twenty 
minute  osseous  rays.  The  cranium  seems  to  have  been  cov- 
ered, as  in  the  shark  family,  by  skin,  and  the  skin  by  minute 
shagreen-like  scales ;  and  all  of  the  interior  cerebral  frame- 
work which  appears  underneath  exists  simply  as  faint  impres- 
sions of  an  undivided  body,  covered  by  what  seem  to  be  osseous 
points,  —  the  bony  molecules,  it  is  probable,  which  encrusted 
the  cartilage.  The  jaws,  in  the  better  specimens,  are  also 
preserved  in  the  same  doubtful  style  ,  and  this  state  of  keep- 
ing is  the  common  one  in  deposits  in  which  every  true  bone, 
however  delicate,  presents  an  outline  as  sharp  as  when  it  oc- 
cupied its  place  in  the  living  animal.  The  dermal  or  skin- 
skeleton  of  both  genera,  which  consisted,  as  has  been  shown 
(pages  55  56)  of  shagreen-like  osseous  scales  and   slender 


68  CEREBRAL    DEVELOPMENT 

spines,  both  brilliantly  enamelled,  is  preserved  entire;  -where- 
as the  interior  framework  of  the  head  exists  as  mere  point- 
speckled  impressions ;  and  the  inference  appears  unavoidable, 
that  parts  which  so  invariably  differ  in  their  state  of  keeping 
nojo,  must  have  essentially  differed  in  their  substance  originally. 
Now,  in  the  Cheiracanthus  we  detect  the  first  faint  indica- 
'ons  of  a  peculiar  arrangement  of  the  dermal  skeleton,  in  re- 
ation  to  certain  parts  of  the  skeleton  within,  which  —  greatly 
more  developed  in  some  of  its  contemporaries  —  led  to  im- 
portant results  in  the  general  structure  of  these  Ganoids,  and 
furnishes  the  true  key  to  the  character  of  the  early  ganoid 
head.  In  such  of  the  existing  Placoids  as  I  have  had  an  op- 
portunity of  examining,  the  only  portions  of  the  dermal  skel- 
eton of  bone  which  conform  in  their  arrangement  to  portions 
of  the  interior  skeleton  of  cartilage,  are  the  teeth,  which  are 
always  laid  on  a  base  of  skin  right  over  the  jaws  :  there  is 
also  an  approximation  to  arrangement  of  a  corresponding 
kind,  though  a  distant  one,  in  those  hook-armed  tubercles  of 
certain  species  of  rays  which  run  along  the  vertebral  column  ; 
but  in  the  shagreen  by  which  the  creatures  are  covered  I  have 
been  able  to  detect  no  such  arrangement.  Whether  it  occurs 
on  the  fins,  the  body,  or  the  head,  or  in  the  scale  form,  or 
in  that  of  the  prickle,  it  manifests  the  same  careless  irregu- 
larity. And  on  the  head  and  body  of  the  Cheiracanthtis,  and 
on  all  its  fins  save  one,  the  shagreen-like  scales,  though 
laid  down  more  symmetrically  in  lines  than  true  shagroen, 
manifested  an  equal  absence  of  arrangement  in  relation 
to  the  framework  within.  On  that  one  fin,  however,  —  the 
caudal,  —  the  scales,  passing  from  their  ordinary  rhomboid- 
al  to  a  more  rectangular  form,  ranged  themselves  in  right 
lines  over  the  internal  rays,  (fig.  9,  «,)  and  imparted  to  these 
such  strength  as  a  splint  of  wood  or  whalebone  fastened  over 


OF   THE   EARLIER   VERTEBEATA. 


69 


Fig-  9. 


mM. 


a  fractured  toe  or  finger  imparts  to  the  in- 
jured digit,  —  a  provision  which  was  probably 
rendered  necessary  in  the  case  of  this  im- 
portant organ  of  motion,  from  the  circum- 
stance that  it  was  the  only  fin  which  the 
creature  possessed  that  was  not  strengthened 
and  protected  anteriorly  by  a  strong  spine. 
In  the  Cheirolepis,  —  a  contemporary  fish, 
characterized,  like  its  cogeners  the  Cheiracari' 
thus  and  Diplacantlms^  by  shagreen-like  scales, 
but  in  which  the  spines  were  wanting, —  we 
find  a  farther  development  of  the  provision. 
In  all  the  fins  the  richly-enamelled  dermal- 
covering  was  arranged  in  lines  over  the  rays, 
(fig.  9,  h  ;)  and  the  scale,  which  assumes  in 
the  fins,  like  the  scales  on  the  tail  of  the  a.  Portion  of  can 
Cheiracanthus,  though  somewhat  more  irregu-  dalfinofCfmr- 
11  II  •  -111  acatUhus.* 

larly,  a  rectangular  shape,  is  so  considerably  ^j  Portion  of  cau' 

elongated,  that  it  assumes  for  its  normal  cha-      dalfinofcheir- 

I       a\.   ^      f  •!_       •   •    X      c  olepis  Cummin- 

racter  as  a  scale,  that  of  the  loint  of  an  ex- 
temal  ray.     A  similar  arrangement  of  exter-  (Mag.  three  diam- 
nal  protection  takes  place  in  this  genus  over  eters.) 

the  bones  of  the  head ;  the  cartilaginous  jaws  receive  their 
osseous  dermal  covering,  and,  with  these,  the  hyoid  bones, 
the  opercules,  and  the  cranium.  And  it  is  in  these  dermal 
plates,  which  covered  an  interior  skull,  of  which,  save 
in  one  genus,  —  the  Dipterus,  —  not  a  vestige  remains  in  any 
of  the  Old  Red  fishes  thus  protected,  that  we  first  trace  what 


*  The  darker,  upper  patch  in  this  figure  indicates  a  portion  ia 
which  the  scales  of  the  fins  in  the  fossil  still  retain  their  enamel ; 
—  tlie  lighter,  a  portion  from  which  the  enamel  has  disappeared. 


70  CEREBRAL    DEVELOPMENT 

seem  to  be  the  homologues  of  the  cranial  bones  of  the  osse- 
ous tishes,  —  at  least  their  homologues  so  far  as  the  cuLicular 
can  represent  the  internal.  They  appear  for  the  first  time, 
not  as  modified  spinous  processes,  broadened,  as  in  the  cara- 
pace of  the  Chelonians,  into  osseous  plates,  but  like  those 
corneous  external  plates  of  this  order  of  reptiles,  (known 
in  one  species  as  the  tortoise-shell  of  commerce,)  the  origin 
of  which  is  purely  cuticular,  and  which  evince  so  little  cor- 
respondence in  their  divisions  with  the  sutures  of  the  bones 
on  which  they  rest,  that  they  have  been  instanced,  in  their 
relation  to  the  joinings  beneath,  as  admirable  illustrations  of 
the  cross-handing  of  the  mechanician. 

In  the  heads  of  the  osseous  fishes,  the  cranium  proper, 
though  consisting,  like  the  skulls  of  birds,  reptiles,  and  mam- 
mals, of  several  bones,  exists  from  snout  to  nape,  and  from 
mastoid  to  mastoid,  as  one  unbroken  box ;  whereas  all  the 
other  bones  of  the  head,  such  as  the  maxillaries  and  inter- 
maxillaries,  the  lower  jaws,  the  opercular  appendages,  the 
branchial  arches,  and  the  branchiostegous  rays,  are  connect- 
ed but  by  muscle  and  ligament,  and  fall  apart  under  the  pu- 
trefactive influences,  or  in  the  process  of  boiling.  This  un- 
broken box,  which  consists,  in  the  cod,  of  twenty-five  bones, 
is  the  homologue  of  that  cranial  box  of  the  Placoids  which 
consists  of  one  entire  piece,  and  the  homotype,  according  to 
Oken,  of  the  bodies  and  spinal  processes  of  four  vertebrae  ; 
while  the  looser  bones  which  drop  away  represent  their  ribs. 
The  upper  surface  of  the  box,  —  that  extending  from  the  nasal 
bone  to  the  nape, —  is  the  only  part  over  which  a  dermal 
buckler  could  be  laid,  as  it  is  the  only  part  with  which  the  ex- 
ternal skin  comes  in  contact ;  and  so  it  is  between  this  upper 
surface  and  the  cranial  bucklers  of  the  earl ierGanc ids  that  we 
have  to  institute  comparisons.     For  it  is  a  curious  fact,  that. 


OF    THE    EARLIER    VERTEBRATA.  71 

* 

With  the  exception  of  the  Old  Red  genera  Acanthodus,  Cheir- 
acanthus,  and  Diplacanthus*  all  the  Ganoids  of  the  period  in 
which  Ganoids  first  appear  have  dermal  bucklers  placed  right 
over  their  true  skulls,  and  that  these,  though  as  united  in  their 
parts  as  the  bones  proper  to  the  cranium  in  quadrupeds  and 
fishes,  are  composed  of  several  pieces,  furnished  each  with  its 
independent  centre  of  ossification.  The  Dipterians,  the  Coela- 
canths,  the  Cephalaspians,  and  at  least  one  genus  placed 
rather  doubtfully  among  the  Acanths,  —  the  genus  Cheirolepis^ 
—  all  possessed  cranial  bucklers  extending  from  the  nape  to 
the  snout,  in  which  the  plates,  various,  in  the  several  genera, 
in  form  and  position,  were  fast  soldered  together,  though  in 
every  instance  the  lines  of  suture  were  distinctly  marked. 

On  each  side  of  this  external  cranium  the  various  cerebral 
plates,  like  the  corresponding  cerebral  rihs  in  the  osseous 
fishes,  were  free,  at  least  not  anchylosed  together  ;  and  some 
of  their  number  unequivocally  performed,  in  part  at  least, 
the  functions  of  two  of  these  cerebral  ribs,  viz.  the  upper 
and  under  jaws,  with  the  functions  of  the  opercular  appen- 
dages attached  to  the  latter.  In  the  cod,  as  in  most  odier 
osseous  fishes,  the  upper  portion  of  the  cranium  consists  of 
thirteen  bones,  which  represent,  however,  only  seven  bones 
in  the  human  skull, —  the  nasal,  the  frontal,  the  two  parie- 
tal, the  occipital,  and  one-half  the  two  temporal  bones.  And 
whereas  in  man,  and  in  most  of  the  mammals,  there  are  four 
of  these  placed  in  the  medial  line,  —  the  four  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  assertors  of  the  vertebral  theory,  form  the  spinal 
crests  of  the  f  jur  cerebral  vertebrae,  —  in  the  cod  there  are  but 


•  The  Acanths  of  the  Coal  Measiires  possess  the  cranial  buck- 
.er. 


72 


CEREBRAL    BEVELOPMENT 


three.    The  super-occipital  bone,  A,  (fig.  10,)  pieces  on  to  the 
superior  frontal,  C,  C,  C ;  and  the  parietals,  B,  B,  which  in 

Kg.  10 


a  a 

TTPPER  STTRFACE  OP  CRANrUH   OF  COD.* 


A,  Occipital  bone. 

B,  B,  Parietals. 

C,  C,  C,  Superior  frontal. 
I,  Nasal  bone. 

D,  D,  Anterior  frontal. 


F,  F,  Posterior fronfaU. 
E,  E,  Mastoid  bones. 
2,  2,  Eye  orbits. 
a,  a,  Par-occipital  bones. 


*  Professor  Owen,  in  fixing  the  homologies  of  the  ichthyic  head, 
differs  considerably  from  Cuvier ;  but  his  %-iew  seems  to  be  de- 
monstrably the  correct  one.  It  will,  however,  be  seen,  that  in 
my  attempted  comparison  of  the  di^'isions  of  the  ancient  ganoid 
cranium  with  those  of  the  craniums  of  existing  fishes,  the  points 
at  issue  between  the  two  great  naturalists  are  not  involved,  other- 
wise than  as  mere  questions  of  words.    The  matter  to  be  deter- 


OF    THE    EARLIEK   VEKTEBRATA.  73 

the  human  subject  from  the  upper  and  middle  portions  of 
the  cranial  vault,  are  thrust  out  laterally  and  posteriorly,  and 
take  their  places,  in  a  subordinate  capacity,  on  each  side 
of  the  super-occipital.  This  is  not  an  invariable  arrange- 
ment among  fishes  ;  —  in  the  carp  genus,  for  instance,  the  pa- 
rietals  assume  their  proper  medial  place  between  the  occipital 
and  frontal  bones ;  but  so  very  general  is  the  displacement, 
that  Professor  Owen  regards  it  as  characteristic  of  the  great 
ichthyic  class,  and  as  the  first  example  in  the  vertebrata, 
reckoning  from  the  lower  forms  upwards,  of  a  sort  of  nat- 
ural dislocation  among  the  bones, —  "a  modification,"  he 
remarks,  *' which,  sometimes  accompanied  by  great  change 
of  place,  has  tended  most  to  obscure  the  essential  nature  of 
parts,  and  their  true  relations  to  the  archetype." 

Of  all  the  cerebral  bucklers  of  the  first  ganoid  period,  that 
w'.nch  best  bears  comparison  with  the  cranial  front  of  the  cod 
is  the  buckler  of  the  Coccosteus,  (fig.  11.)  The  general  pro- 
portions of  this  portion  of  the  ancient  Cephalaspian  head 
differ  very  considerably  from  those  of  the  corresponding  part 
In  the  modern  cycloid  one  ;  but  in  their  larger  divisions,  the 
modern  and  the  ancient  answer  bone  to  bone.  Three 
csseous  plates  in  the  Coccosteus,  A,  C,  I,  the  homologues, 
fpparently,  of  the  occipital,  frontal,  and  nasal  bones, 
jange  along  the  medial  line.     The  apparent  homologues  of 


mined,  for  instance,  is  not  whether  plate  A  in  the  skulls  of  the  cod 
and  Coccosteus  be  the  homologue  of  a  part  of  "the  occipital  or  that 
of  a  part  of  the  parietal  bones,  but  whether  plate  A  in  the  Coccos- 
teus be  the  homologue  of  plate  A  in  the  cod.  The  letters  employed 
I  have  borrowed  from  Agassiz's  restoration  of  the  Coccosteus ;  where^ 
as  the  figures  intimate  divisions  which  the  imperfect  keeping  of  the 
specimens  on  which  the  ichthyologist  founded  did  not  enable  him  tp 
detect. 

7 


74  cerebral  development 

Kk.  11. 


a  a 

CUAXIAL  BUCKLER  OF  COCCOSTEUS  DECIPIEN8. 

a,  a,  Points  of  attachment  to  the  cuirass  which  covered  the  tipper 
part  of  the  creature's  body. 

the  parietals,  B,  B,  occupy  the  same  position  of  lateral  dis- 
placement as  the  parietals  of  the  cod  and  of  so  many  other 
fishes.  The  posterior  frontals,  F,  and  the  anterior  frontals, 
D,  also  occupy  places  relatively  the  same,  though  the  latter, 
which  are  of  greater  proportional  size,  encroach  much  fur- 
ther, laterally  and  posteriorly,  on  the  superior  frontal  C,  C,  C, 
and  sweep  entirely  round  the  upper  half  of  the  eye  orbits,  2,  2. 
The  apparent  homologue  of  the  mastoid  bone,  E  which  also 
occupies  its  proper  place,  joins  posteriorly  to  a  little  plate,  a, 
imperfectly  separated  in  most  specimens  from  the  parietal, 
but  which  seems  to  represent  the  par-occipital  bone ;  and  it  is 
a  curious  circumstance,  that  as,  in  many  of  the  osseous  fishes, 
it  is  to  these  bones  that '  the  forks  of  the  scapular  arch 
are  attached,  they  unite  in  the  Coccosteus  in  furnishing, 
in  like  manner,  a  point  of  attachment  to  the  cuirass  which 
covered  the  upper  part  of  the  creature's  body.  Of  the  true 
internal  skull  of  the  Coccosteus  there  remains  not  a  veslige. 


OF    THE    EARLIER   \  ERTEBRATA.  75 

Like  that  of  the  sturgeon,  it  must  have  been  a  perishable, 
cartilaginous  box. 

In  the  Osteokpis,  —  an  animal  the  whole  of  whose  ex.ernal 
head  I  have,  at  an  expense  of  some  labor,  and  from  the  ex- 
amination of  many  specimens,  been  enabled  to  restore, — 
the  cranial  buckler  (fig.  12)  was  divided  in  a  more  arbitrary 


C 

CRANIAL  BUCKLEE  OP   0STE0LEPI8. 

style  ;  and  we  find  that  an  element  of  uncertainty  mingles 
with  our  inferences  regarding  it,  from  the  circumstance  that 
some  of  its  lines  of  division,  especially  in  the  frontal  half, 
were  not  real  sutures,  but  formed  merely  a  kind  of  surface- 
tatooing,  resorted  to  as  if  for  purposes  of  ornament.  The 
cranial  buckler  of  the  Asterolepis  exhibited,  as  I  shall  after- 
wards have  occasion  to  show,  a  similar  peculiarity; — both 
had  their  pseudo-sutures,  resembling  those  false  joints  intro- 
duced by  the  architect  into  his  rusticated  basements,  in  order 
to  impart  the  necessary  aspect  of  regularity  to  what  is  techni- 


76  CEREBRAL    DEVELOPMENT 

cally  termed  the  coursing  and  banding  of  the  fabric.  We  can, 
however,  dcternnine,  notwithstanding  the  induced  obscurty, 
that  the  buckler  of  the  OsI.eolepis  was  divided  transversely  in 
the  middle  into  two  main  parts  or  segments,  —  an  occipital 
part,  C,  and  a  frontal  part,  A  ;  and  that  the  occipital  segment 
seems  to  include  also  the  parietal  and  mastoid  plates,  and  the 
frontal  segment  to  comprise,  with  its  own  proper  plates,  not 
only  the  nasal  plate,  but  also  the  representative  of  the  ante- 
rior part  of  the  vomer.  All,  however,  is  obscure.  But  in 
our  uncertainty  regarding  the  homologies  of  the  divisions  of 
this  dermal  buckler,  let  us  not  forget  the  homology  of  the 
buckler  itself,  as  a  whole,  with  the  upper  surface  of  the 
true  cranium  in  the  osseous  fishes.  Though  frequently  crushed 
and  broken,  it  exists  in  all  the  finer  specimens  of  my  collec- 
tion as  a  symmetrically  arranged  collocation  of  enamelled 
plates,  as  firmly  united  into  one  piece,  though  they  all  indi- 
cate their  distinct  centres  of  ossification,  as  the  correspond- 
ing surface  of  the  cranium  in  the  carp  or  cod.  The  lateral 
curves  in  the  frontal  part  immediately  opposite  the  lozenge- 
shaped  plate  in  the  centre,  show  the  position  of  the  eyes, 
which  were  placed  in  this  genus,  as  in  some  of  the  carniv- 
orous turtles,  immediately  over  the  mouth,  —  an  arrangement 
common  to  almost  all  the  Ganoids  of  the  Lower  Old  Red 
Sandstone.  The  nearly  semicircular  termination  of  the 
buckler  formed  the  creature's  snout ;  and  in  the  Osteolepis,  as 
in  the  Glt/ptolepis  and  the  Diplopterus,  it  was  armed  on  the 
under  side,  like  the  vomer  of  so  many  of  the  osseous  fishes, 
with  sharp  teeth.  Some  of  my  specimens  indicate  the  nasal 
openings  a  little  in  advance  of  the  eyes.  The  nape  of  tho 
creature  was  covered  by  three  detached  plates,  (9,  9,  9,  fig. 
13,)  which  rested  upon  anterior  dorsal  scales,  and  whose 
homo.og':jes,  in  the  osseous  fishes,  may  possibly  be  found  in 


OF   THE   EARLIEE   VERTEBRATA. 


77 


UPPEU  PAET   OP  HEAD   OP  OSTEOLEP18. 


whose  bones  which,  uniting  the  shoulder-bones  to  the  head, 
complete  the  Scapular  belt  or  ring.  The  operculum  we  find 
represented  by  a  single  plate  (8)  which  had  attached  to 
it,  as  its  sub-operculum,  a  plate  (13)  of  nearly  equal  size, 
(see  figs.  14  and  15.)  Four  small  plates  (2,  4, 5)  fiDrmed 
the  under  curve  of  the  eyes,  described  in  many  of  the  osse- 
ous fishes  by  a  chain  of  small  bones  or  ossicles  ;  a  consider- 
ably larger  plate  (6)  occupied  the  place  of  the  preopercular 
bone ;  while  the  intermaxillaries  had  their  representatives  in 
well-marked  plates,  (3,  3,)  which,  in  the  genera  Osteolepis, 
Diplnpterus,  and  Glypfolepis,  we  find  bristling  so  thickly  with 
teeth  along  their  lower  edges,  as  to  remind  us  of  the  minia- 
ture saws  employed  by  the  joiner  in  cutting  out  circular  holes. 
These  external  intermaxillaries  did  not,  as  in  the  perch  or  cod, 
meet  in  front  of  the  nasal  bone  and  vomer,  but  joined  on  at 
the  side,  a  little  in  advance  of  the  eyes,  leaving  the  rounded 
termination  of  the  cranial  buckler,  which,  like  the  intermaxil- 
laries, was  thickly  fringed  with  teeth,  to  form,  as  has  been 
already  said,  the  creature's  snout. 


78  CEKEBKAL    DEVELOPMENT 

The  under  jaws  (10)  — strongly-marked  bones  in  at  leasl 
all  the  Dipterian  and  Coelacanth  genera  —  we  find  represented 
externally  by  massy  plates,  bearing,  like  those  of  the  upper 
jaw,  their  range  of  teeth.  As  shown  in  a  well-preserved 
spec  me  1  of  the  lower  jaw  of  Holoptychius,  in  my  possession, 
they  were  boxes  of  bone  enclosing  a  bulky  nucleus  of  car- 
tilage, which,  in  approaching  towards  the  condyloid  process, 
where  great  strength  was  necessary,  was  thickly  traversed  by 
osseous  cancelli,  and  passed  at  the  joint  into  true  bone.  It  is 
in  the  under  jaws  of  the  earlier  Ganoids  that  we  first  detect 
a  true  union  of  the  external  with  the  internal  skeleton,  —  of 
the  bony  plates  and  teeth,  which  were  mere  plates  and  teeth  of 
the  skin,  with  the  osseous,  granular  walls  which  enclosed  at 
least  all  the  larger  pieces  of  the  cartilaginous  framework  of 
the  interior.  The  jaws  of  the  Rays  and  Shafks,  formed  of 
cartilage,  and  fenced  round  on  their  sides  and  edges  by  their 
thin  coverings  of  polygonal,  bony  points,  are  wholly  inter- 
nal and  skin-covered  ;  whereas  the  teeth,  which  rest  on 
the  soft  cuticular  integument  right  over  them,  are  as  purely 
dermal  as  the  surrounding  shagreen.  Teeth  and  shagreen 
may,  we  find,  be  alike  stripped  off  with  the  skin.  Now,  in 
the  earlier  ganoidal  jaw,  two  sides  of  the  osseous  box  which 
it  composed,  —  its  outer  and  under  sides,  —  were  mere 
dermal  plates,  representative  of  the  skin  of  the  placoids,  or 
of  their  shagreen ;  while  the  other  two,  —  its  upper  and  in- 
ner sides,  —  seem  to  have  been  developments  of  the  interior 
osseous  walls  which  covered  the  endo-skeletal  cartilage.  Nor 
is  it  unworthy  of  notice,  that  the  reptile  fishes  of  the  period 
had  their  ichthyic  teeth  ranged  along  the  edge  of  an  exterior 
dermal  plate  which  covered  the  outer  side  of  the  jaw ; 
whereas  their  reptile  teeth  were  planted  on  a  plate,  ap- 
parently of  interior  development,  which  covered  its  upper 


OF    THE   EARLIER   VERTEBRATA. 


79 


edge.  It  is  further  worthy  of  remark,  that  while  the  teeth 
of  the  dermal  plate,  —  themselves  also  dermal,  —  seem  as  if 
they  had  grown  out  of  i ,  and  formed  part  of  it,  —  just  as  the 
teeth  of  the  Placoids  grew  out  of  the  skin  on  which  they  rest, 
—  the  reptile  teeth  witliin  rested  in  shallow  pits,  —  the  first 
faint  indications  of  true  sockets. 

That  space  included  within  the  arch  formed  by  the  sweep 
of  the  under  jaws,  which  we  find  occupied  in  the  osseous 
fishes  by  the  hyoid  bones  and  the  branchiostegous  rays,  was 
filled  up  externally,  in  the  Dipterians  and  Coelacanths,  and  in 
at  least  two  genera  of  Cephalaspians,  by  dermal  plates  ;  in  some 
genera,  such  as  the  Diplnpterus^  by  three  plates ;  in  others, 
such  as  the  Holoptychius  and  Glyptolepis,  by  two  ;  and  in  the 
Asterolepis,  as  we  shall  afterwards  see,  by  but  a  single  plate. 
In  the  Osteolepis  these  plates  were  increased  to  five  in  number, 
by  the  little  plates  14, 14,  (fig.  14,)  which,  however,  may  have 

Fig.  14. 


UNDER  PART  OF  HEAD  OF  OSTEOLEPIS.* 


*  The  jaws    (10,   10)  which   exhibit  in  the    print   their  greatest 
breadth,  woxild  have  presented  in  the  animal,  seen  from  beneath. 


80  CEREBKAL   DEVELOPMENT 

been  also  present  in  the  Diplopterus,  though  my  specimena 
fail  to  show  them.  The  general  arrangement  was  of  much 
elegance,  —  an  elegance,  however,  which,  in  the  accompanying 
restorations,  the  dislocation  of  the  free  plates,  drawn  apart  to 
indicate  their  detached  character,  somewhat  tends  to  obscure. 
But  the  position  of  the  eyes  must  have  imparted  to  the  ani- 
mal a  sinister  reptile-like  aspect.    The  profile,  (fig.  15,)  the 

Fig.  15. 


HEAD  OF  0STE0LEPI8,  SEEN  IN  PEOFIIB. 

result,  not  of  a  chance-drawn  outline,  arbitrarily  filled  up,  but 
produced  by  the  careful  arrangement  in  their  proper  places 
of  actually  existing  plates,  serves  to  show  how  perfectly  the 
dermo-skeletal  parts  of  the  creature  were  developed.  Some 
of  the  animals  with  which  we  are  best  acquainted,  if  rep- 
resented by  but  their  cuticular  skeleton,  would  appear 
simply  as  sets  of  hoofs  and  horns.  Even  the  tortoise  or 
pengolin  would  present  about  the  head  and  limbs  their  gaps 
and  missing  portions  ;  but  the  dermo-skeleton  of  the  Osteo- 
lepis^  composed  of  solid  bone,  and  burnished  with  enamel, 
exhibited  the  outline  of  the  fish  entire,  and,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  eye,  the  filling  up  of  all  its  external  parts.     Pre- 


their  narrow  under-edges,  and  have  nearly  fallen  into  the  line  of  the 
Bub-opercular  plates,  (13,  13.) 


OF   THE   EARLIIR   VERTEBKATA.  81 

senting  o  .tside,  in  its  original  state,  no  fragment  of  skin  or 
membrane,  and  with  even  its  most  flexible  organs  sheathed 
in  enamelled  bone,  the  Osleolepis  must  have  very  much  re 
sembled  a  fish  carved  in  ivory ;  and,  though  so  efTectually 
covered,  it  would  have  appeared,  from  the  circumstance,  that 
it  wore  almost  all  its  bone  outside,  as  naked  as  the  human 
teeth. 
Tlie  cranial  buckler  of  the  Diplopierus  (fig.  16)  somewhat 

Fisr.  16. 


CRANIAIi  BUCKLER  OP  DIPLOPTEEUS. 

resembled  that  of  its  fellow-dipterian  the  Osteolepis,  but  ex- 
hibited greater  elegance  of  outline,  My  first  perfect  speci- 
men, which  I  owe  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  John  Miller,  of 
Thurso,  an  intelligent  geologist  of  the  north,  reminded  me,  as 
it  glittered  in  jet-black  enamel  on  its  ground  of  pale  gray,  of 
those  Roman  cuirasses  which  one  sees  in  old  prints,  impaled 
on  stakes,  as  the  central  objects  in  warlike  trophies  formed 
of  spoils  taken  in  battle.  The  rounded  snout  represented  the 
chest  and  shoulders,  the  middle  portion  the  waist,  and  the  ex- 
pans'on  at  the  nape  tlie  piece  of  dress  attached,  which,  like 
the  Highland  kilt,  fell  adown  the  thighs.  The  addition 
of  a  fragment  of  a  sleeve,  suspended  a  little  over  the  eye 


82  CEREBRAL    DEVELOPMENT 

orbits,  2,  2,  seemed  all  that  was  necessary  in  order  to  render 
the  resemblance  complete.  But  as  I  disinterred  the  buried 
edges  of  the  specimen  with  a  graver,  the  form,  though  it 
grew  still  more  elegant,  became  less  that  of  the  ancient 
coat  of  armor ;  the  snout  expanded  into  a  semicircle ;  the 
eye  orbits  gradually  deepened  ;  and  the  entire  fossil  became 
not  particularly  like  any  thing  but  the  thing  it  once  was,  — 
the  sranial  buckler  of  the  Diploptertis.    The  print  (fig.  17) 

Fig.  17. 


CKANIAI.  BTTCKLEB  OF  DIPLOPTEETTS. 

exhibits  its  true  form.  It  consists  of  two  main  divisions, 
occipital  (A)  and  frontal,  (C,  fig.  16 ;)  and  in  each  of  these 
we  find  a  pair  of  smaller  divisions,  with  what  seem  to  be  in- 
dications of  yet  further  division,  marked,  not  by  lines,  bui 
by  dots ;  though  I  have  hitherto  failed  to  determine  whether 
the  plates  which  these  last  indicate  possess  their  independ- 
ent centres  of  ossification.  Not  unfrequently,  however,  has 
the  comparative  anatomist  to  seek  the  analogues  of  two 
bones  in  one  ;  nor  is  it  at  least  more  difficult  to  trace  in 
ihe  faint  divisions  cf  the  cranial  buckler  of  the  Diploptertis , 


OF   THE   EARLIER  VERTEBRATA. 


83 


the  homologues  of  the  occipital,  frontal,  parietal,  mastoid, 
and  nasal  bones,  than  to  recognize  the  representatives  of  the 
carpals  of  the  middle  and  ring  finger  in  man,  in  the  cannon 
bone  of  the  fore  leg  of  the  ox.  I  may  mention  in  passing, 
that  the  little  central  plate  of  the  frontal  division,  (1,  fig.  16,) 
which  so  nearly  corresponds  with  that  of  the  Osteolepis, 
occurred,  though  with  considerable  variations  of  form  and 
homology,  and  some  slight  difference  of  position,  m  all  the 
Ganoids  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  whose  craniums  were 
covered  with  an  osseous  buckler,  and  that  its  place  was 
always  either  immediately  between  the  eyes  or  a  very  little 
over  them.  Its  never-failing  recurrence  shows  that  it  must 
have  had  some  meaning,  though  it  may  be  difficult  to  say 
what.  In  the  Coccosteus  it  takes  the  form  of  the  male 
dovetail,  which  united  the  nasal  plate  or  snout  to  the  plate 
representative  of  the  superior  frontal.  Of  the  cartilaginous 
box  which  formed  the  interior  skull  of  either  Osteolepis,, 
or  Diplopterus,  or,  with  but  one  excep- 
tion, of  the  interior  skulls  of  any  of 
their  contemporaries,  no  trace,  as  I 
have  said,  has  yet  been  detected.  The 
solitary  exception  in  the  case  is,  how- 
ever, one  of  singular  interest. 

In  a  collection  of  miscellaneous  frag- 
ments sent  me  by  Mr.  Dick  from  the 
rocks  of  Thurso,  I  detected  patches 
of  palatal  teeth  ranged  in  near.y  the 
quadratures  of  circles,  and  which 
radiated  outwards  from  the  rectangu- 
lar angle  or  centre,  (fig.  18,  h.)  And 
with  the  patches  there  occurred  plates 
exactly  resembling  the  barbed  head  of  a  dart,  (a,)  with  which 


Fig.  18. 


a,  Palatal  dart-head. 

b,  Group  of  palatal  teeih. 


84  CEREBRAL    DEVELOPMENT 

I  had  been  previously  acquainted,  though  I  had  failed  to 
determine  their  character  or  place.  The  excellent  state 
of  keeping  of  some  of  Mr.  Dick's  specimens  now  enabled  me 
to  trace  the  patches  with  the  dart-head,  and  several  other 
plates,  to  a  curious  piece  of  palatal  mechanism,  ranged  along 
the  base  of  a  ganoid  cranium,  covered  externally  by  a  brightly 
enamelled  buckler,  and  to  ascertain  the  order  in  which 
patches  and  plates  occurred.  And  then,  though  not  without 
some  labor,  I  succeeded  in  tracing  the  buckler  with  which 
they  were  associated  to  the  Dipterus,  —  a  fish  which,  though 
it  has  engaged  the  attention  of  both  Cuvier  and  Agassiz,  has 
not  yet  been  adequately  restored.  It  is  on  an  ill-preserved 
Orkney  specimen  of  the  cranial  buckler  of  this  Ganoid  that 
the  ichthyologist  has  founded  his  genus  Polyphractus ;  while 
groupes  of  its  palatal  teeth  from  the  Old  Red  of  Russia  he 
refers  to  a  supposed  Placoid,  —  the  Ctenodus.  But  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  palseontological  research,  mistakes  of  this 
character  are  wholly  unavoidable.  The  palaeontologist  who 
did  avoid  them  would  be  either  very  unobservant,  or  at  once 
very  rash  and  very  fortunate  in  his  guesses.  If,  ere  an 
entire  skeleton  of  the  Ichthyosaurus  had  turned  up,  there  had 
been  found  in  different  localities,  in  the  Liasic  formation,  a 
beak  like  that  of  a  porpoise,  teeth  like  that  of  a  crocodile, 
a  head  and  sternum  like  that  of  a  lizard,  paddles  like  those 
of  a  cetacean,  and  vertebraj  like  those  of  a  fish,  it  would 
have  been  greatly  more  judicious,  and  more  in  accordance 
with  the  existing  analogies,  to  have  erected,  provisionally  at 
least,  places  specifically,  or  even  genetically  separated,  in 
which  to  range  the  separate  pieces,  than  to  hold  that  they  had 
all  united  in  one  anomalous  genus;  though  such  was  actually 
the  fact.  And  Agassiz,  in  erecting  three  distinct  genera  out 
of  the  fragments  of  a  single  genus,  has  in  reality  acted  at  once 


OF  THE  EARLIER  VERTEBRATA.  85 

more  prudently  and  more  intelligently  than  if  he  had  avoided 
'Jie  error  by  rashly  uniting  parts  which  in  their  separate  state 
indicate  no  tie  of  connection. 

The  cranial  buckler  of  the  Dipterus  (fig.  19)  was,  like 

Fis:.  19. 


CBANIAL  BVCKLEK  OP  SIFTEBUS. 


that  of  the  Diplopterus,  of  great  beauty.  In  some  of  the 
finer  specimens,  we  find  the  enamel  ornately  tatooed,  within 
the  more  strongly-marked  divisions,  by  delicately  traced  lines, 
waved  and  bent,  as  if  upon  the  principle  of  Hogarth ;  and 
though  the  lateral  plates  are  numerous  and  small,  and  defy 
the  homologies,  we  may  trace  in  those  of  the  central  line, 
from  the  snout  to  the  nape,  what  seem  to  be  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  frontal,  parietal,  and  occipital  bones,  —  the 
parictals  ranging,  as  in  the  skull  of  the  carp  and  in  that  of 
most  of  the  mammals,  in  their  proper  place  in  the  medial 
line.  But  the  under  surface  of  the  cranium,  armed,  as  on 
the  upper  surface,  with  plates  of  bone,  exhibited  an  arrange 
8 


86  CEREBRAL    DEVELOPMENT 

ment  still  more  peculiar,  (fig.  20.)     Its  rectangular  patches 
of  palatal  teeth,  its  curious  dart-like  bone,  placed  imir  ediately 

Fig.  20. 


BASE  OP   CRANIUM  OF  DIPTEKUS. 

behind  these,  and  attached,  as  the  dart-head  is  attached  to 
the  handle,  to  a  broad  lozenge-shaped  plate,  with  two  strong 
osseous  processes  projecting  on  either  side,  forms  such  a 
tout  ensemble  as  is  unique  among  fishes.  Even  here,  however, 
there  may  be  traced  at  least  a  shade  of  homological  resem- 
blance to  the  bones  which  form  the  base  of  the  osseous  skull. 
The  single  lozenge-shaped  plate,  (A,)  with  its  dart-head, 
occupies  the  place  of  the  basi-occipital  bone ;  the  posterior 
portion  of  the  vomer  seems  represented  by  a  strong  bony 
ridge,  extending  towards  the  snout ;  two  separate  bones,  each 
bearing  one  of  the  angular  patcnes  of  teeth,  correspcmds  to 
the  sphenoid  bone  and  its  alae  ;  and  attached  laterally  to  each 
of  these  there  is  the  strong  projecting  bone,  on  which  the 


OF   THE   EARLIER   VERTEBRATA.  87 

lower  jaw  appears  to  have  hinged,  and  which  apparently  rep- 
resents the  lower  part  of  the  temporal  bone.  Not  less 
singular  was  the  form  of  the  creature's  under  jaw,  (fig.  21.) 

Fig.  21. 


UNDER    JAW    OF    DrPTERTJS. 


I  know  no  other  fish-jaw,  whether  of  the  recent  or  the  ex- 
tinct races,  that  might  be  so  readily  mistaken  for  that  of  a 
quadruped.  It  exhibits  not  only  the  condyloid,  but  also  the 
coronoid  processes ;  and,  save  that  it  broadens  on  its  upper 
edges,  where  in  mammals  the  grinders  are  placed,  so  as  to 
/urnish  field  enough  for  angular  patches  of  teeth,  which 
correspond  with  the  angular  patches  in  the  palate,  it  might 
de  regarded,  found  detached,  as  at  least  a  reptilian,  if  not 
mammalian,  bone.  The  disposition  of  the  palatal  teeth  of  the 
Dipterus  will  scarce  fail  to  remind  the  mechanist  of  the  style 
<of  grooving  resorted  to  in  the  formation  of  mill-stones  for 
ihe  grinding  of  flour  ;  nor  is  it  wholly  improbable  that,  in 
correspondence  with  the  rotatory  motion  of  the  stones  to 
which  the  grooving  is  specially  adapted,  jaws  so  hinged  may 
have  possessed  some  such  power  of  lateral  motion  as  that 
•exemplified  by  the  human  subject  in  the  use  of  the  molar 
teeth. 

The  protection  afforded  by  the  osseous  covering  of  both  the 
upper  and  under  surface  of  the  cranium  of  this  ichthyolite  has 


88  CEREBRAL    DEVELOPMENT 

resulted,  in  several  instances,  in  the  preservation,  though  aU 
ways  in  a  greatly  compressed  state,  of  the  cranium  itself,  and 
the  consequent  exhibition  of  two  very  important  cranial  cavi- 
ties, the  brain-pan  proper,  and  the  passage  through  which  the 
spinal  cord  passed  into  the  brain.  In  the  sturgeon  the  brain 
occupies  nearly  the  middle  of  the  head ;  and  there  is  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  occipital  region  traversed  by  the  spine  in 
a  curved  channel,  which,  seen  in  profile,  appears  wide  at  the 
nape,  but  considerably  narrower  where  it  enters  the  brain-pan, 
and  altogether  very  much  resembling  the  interior  of  a  minia- 
ture hunting-horn.  And  such  exactly  was  the  arrangement 
of  the  greater  cavities  in  the  head  of  the  Dipterus.  The  por- 
tion of  the  cranium  which  was  overlaid  by  what  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  occipital  plate  was  traversed  by  a  cavity  shaped 
like  a  Lilliputian  bugle-horn ;  while  the  hollow  in  which  the 
brain  was  lodged  lay  under  the  two  parietal  plates,  and  the 
little  elliptical  plate  in  the  centre.  The  accompanying  print, 
(fig.  22,)  though  of  but  slight  show,  may  be  regarded  by  the 

Fig.  22. 


LONGITUDINAL  SECTION   OF  HEAD  OF  DIPTERtrS 

read3r  with  some  little  interest,  as  a  not  inadequate  represen- 
tation of  the  most  ancient  brain-pan  on  which  human  eye  has 
yet  looked,  —  as,  in  short,  the  type  of  cell  in  which,  myriads 
of  ages  ago,  in  at  least  one  genus,  that  mysterious  substance 
was  lodged,  on  whose  place  and  development  so  very  much 
in  the  scheme  of  creation  was  destined  to  depend.  The  speci- 
men from  which  the  figure  is  taken  was  laid  open  laterally  by 
chance   exposure  to   the  waves  on  the  shores  of  Thurso  \ 


OF   THE   EAKLIER  VERTEBHATA.  89 

another  specimen,  cut  longitudinally  by  the  saw  of  the  lapi- 
dary, yields  a  similar  section,  but  greatly  more  compressed  in 
the  cavities  ;  on  which,  of  course,  as  unsupported  hollows,  the 
compression  to  which  the  entire  cranium  had  been  exposed 
chiefly  acted.  When  the  top  and  bottom  of  a  box  are 
violently  forced  together,  it  is  the  empty  space  which  the  box 
encloses  that  is  annihilated  in  consequence  of  the  violence. 

It  is  deserving  of  notice,  that  the  analogies  of  the  cranial 
cavities  in  this  ancient  Ganoid  should  point  so  directly  on  the 
cranial  cavities  of  that  special  Ganoid  of  the  present  time 
which  unites  a  true  skull  of  cartilage  to  a  dermal  skull  of 
osseous  plates,  —  a  circumstance  strongly  corroborative  of  the 
general  evidence,  negative  and  positive,  on  which  I  have  con- 
cluded that  the  true  skulls  of  the  first  Ganoids  wer«  also  car- 
tilaginous. It  is  further  worthy  of  observation,  that  m  all  the 
sections  of  the  cranium  of  Dipterus  which  I  have  yet  ex- 
amined, the  internal  line  is  continuous,  as  in  the  Placoids, 
from  nape  to  snout,  and  that  the  true  skull  presents  no  trace 
of  those  cerebral  vertebrae  of  which  skulls  are  regarded  by 
Oken  and  his  disciples  as  developments.  Historically  at 
least,  the  progress  of  the  ichthyic  head  seems  to  have  been 
a  progress  from  simple  cartilaginous  boxes  to  cartilaginous 
boxes  covered  with  osseous  plates,  that  performed  the  func 
tions,  whether  active  or  passive,  of  internal  bones  ;  and  then 
from  external  plates  to  the  interior  bones  which  the  plates 
had  previously  represented,  and  whose  proper  work  they  had 
done. 

The  principle  which  rendered  it  necessary  that  the  divis 
ions  which  exist  in  the  dermal  skulls  of  the  first  Ganoids 
should  so  closely  correspond  with  the  divisions  which  exist 
in  the  internal  skulls  of  the  osseous  fishes  of  a  greatly  later 
neriod,  does  not  seem  to  lie  far  from  the  surface.  Of  the 
8* 


90  CEREBRAL    DEVELOPMENT 

solid  parts  of  the  ichthyic  head,  a  certain  set  of  pieces  afford 
protection  to  the  brain  and  cerebral  nerves,  and  to  some  of  the 
organs  of  the  senses,  such  as  those  of  seeing  and  hearing; 
while  another  certain  set  of  pieces  constitute  the  framework 
through  which  an  important  class  of  functions,  manducatory 
and  respiratory,  are  performed.  The  protective  bones  of 
merely  passive  function  are  fixed,  whereas  the  bones  of  active 
function,  such  as  the  jaws,  the  osseous  framework  of  the 
opercules,  and  the  hyoid  bones,  are  to  the  necessary  extent 
free  i  e,  capable  of  independent  motion.  Of  course,  the 
detached  character  necessary  to  the  free  cerebral  bones  would 
be  equally  necessary  in  cerebral  plates  united  dermally  to  the 
pieces  of  the  cartilaginous  f.'amework,  which  performed  in 
the  ancient  fish  the  functions  of  these  free  bones.  And  hence 
jaw  plates,  opercular  plates,  and  hyoid  plates,  whose  homolog- 
ical  relation  with  recent  jaws  and  opercular  and  hyoid  bones 
cannot  be  mistaken.  They  were  operative  in  performing 
identical  mechanical  functions,  and  had  to  exist,  in  conse- 
quence, in  identical  mechanical  conditions.  And  an  equally 
simple,  though  somewhat  different  principle,  seems  to  have 
regulated  the  divisions  of  the  fixed  cranial  bucklers  of  the 
Old  Red  Ganoids,  and  to  have  determined  their  homologies 
with  the  fixed  cerebral  bones  of  the  osseous  fishes. 

These  cranial  bucklers,  extending  from  nape  to  snout,  pro- 
tected the  exposed  upper  surface  of  the  cartilaginous  skull, 
and  conformed  to  it  in  shape,  as  a  helmet  conforms  to  the 
shape  of  the  head,  or  a  breast-plate  to  the  shape  of  the  chest. 
And  as  the  cartilaginous  heads  resembled  in  general  out- 
line the  osseous  ones,  the  buckler  which  covered  theii 
upper  surface  resembled  in  general  outline  the  upper  su? 
face  of  the  osseous  skull.  It  was  in  no  case  entirely  a 
flat    plate ;  but    in    every  species   rounded  over  the  snout. 


OF   THE   EARLIER   VERTEBR^xTA  91 

and  in  most  species  at  the  sides ;  and  sc,  in  order  that  its 
characteristic  proportions  might  be  preserved  throughout  the 
various  stages  of  growth  in  the  head  which  it  covered,  it  had 
to  be  formed  from  several  distinct  centres  of  ossification,  and 
to  extend  in  area  around  the  edges  of  the  plates  originated 
from  these.  The  workman  finds  no  difficulty  in  adding  to 
the  size  of  a  piece  of  straight  wall,  whether  by  heighten- 
mg  or  lengthening  it;  but  he  cannot  add  to  the  size  of  a 
dome  or  arch,  without  first  taking  it  down,  and  then  erecting 
it  anew  on  a  larger  scale.  In  the  domes  and  arches  of  the 
animal  kingdom,  the  problem  is  solved  by  building  them  up  of 
distinct  pieces,  few  or  many,  according  to  the  demands  of  the 
figure  which  they  compose,  and  rendering  these  pieces  capable 
of  increase  along  their  edges.  It  is  on  this  principle  that  the 
Cystidea,  the  Echinidae,  the  Chelonian  carapace  and  plastron, 
and  the  skulls  of  the  osseous  Vertebrata,  are  constructed.  It 
is  also  the  principle  on  which  the  cranial  bucklers  of  the 
ancient  Gfanoids  were  formed.*  And  from  the  general  re- 
semblance in  figure  of  these  bucklers  to  the  upper  surface  of 
the  osseous  skull,  the  separate  parts  necessary  for  the  building 
up  of  the  one  were  anticipated,  by  many  ages,  in  the  building 
up  of  the  other  ;  just  as  we  find  external  arches  of  stone 

*  In  all  probability  it  is  like^^'ise  the  principle  of  the  placoid 
BkuU.  The  numerous  osseous  points  by  which  the  latter  is  en- 
crusted, each  capable  of  increase  at  the  edges,  seem  the  minute, 
bricks  of  an  ample  dome.  It  is  possible,  however,  that  new  points 
may  be  formed  in  the  interstices  between  the  first  formed  ones, 
as  what  anatomists  term  the  triquetra  or  Wormiana  form  between 
the  serrated  edges  of  the  lambdoidal  suture  in  the  human  skull; 
and  that  the  osseous  surface  of  the  cerebral  dome  may  thus  ex- 
pend, as  the  dome  itself  increases  in  size,  not  through  the  growth 
of  the  previouslj'  existing  pieces,  —  the  minute  bricks  of  my  illus- 
tration, —  but  through  the  addition  of  new  ones.  Equally,  in 
eithei   cose,  h  )wever,   that   essential  difference   between,  the   pla 


92  CEREBRAL   DEVELOPMENT 

which  were  erected  two  thousand  years  ago,  constructed  oa 
the  same  principle,  and  relatively  of  the  same  parts,  as  internal 
arches  of  brick  built  in  the  present  age.  Doubtless,  however; 
with  this  mechanical  necessity  for  correspondence  of  parts 
in  the  formation  of  corresponding  erections,  there  may  have 
mingled  that  regard  for  typical  resemblance  which  seems 
so  marked  a  characteristic  of  the  style,  if  I  may  so  expres3 
myself,  in  which  the  Divine  Architect  gives  expression  to 
his  ideas.  The  external  osseous  buckler  He  divided  after 
the  general  pattern  which  was  to  be  exemplified,  in  latter 
times,  in  the  divisions  of  the  internal  osseous  skull  ;  as  if  in 
illustration  of  that  "  ideal  exemplar "  which  dwelt  in  his 
mind  from  eternity,  and  on  the  palpable  existence  of  which 
sober  science  has  based  deductions  identical  in  their  scope 
and  bearing  with  some  of  the  sublimest  doctrines  of  the  theo- 
logian. "  The  recognition,"  says  Professor  Owen,  "  of  an 
ideal  exemplar  for  the  vertebrated  animals,  proves  that  the 
knowledge  of  such  a  being  as  man  existed  before  man  ap- 
peared ;  for  the  Divine  mind  which  planned  the  archetype 
also  foreknew  all  its  modifications.     The  archetypal  idea  was 

coid  skull  and  the  placoid  vertebra,  to  which  I  have  referred, 
appears  to  hinge  on  the  circumstance,  that 
while  the  osseous  nucleus  of  each  vertebral 
centrum  could  form,  in  even  its  most  compli- 
cated shape,  from  a  single  point,  the  osse- 
ous walls  of  the  cranium  had  to  be  formed 
from  hundreds.  The  accompanying  diagram 
serves  to  show  after  what  manner  the  verte- 
bral centrum  in  the  Ray  enlarges  with  the  section  of  vertebrai, 
growth  of  the  animal,  by  addition  of  bony  centrum  of  thorn- 
matter  external  to  the  point  in  the  middle,  back. 
at  which  ossification  first  begins.  The  hori- 
zontal lines  indicate  the  lines  of  increment  in  the  two  internal  cones 
which  each  centrum  comprises,  and  the  vertical  ones  the  lines  of 
increment  in  the  lateral  pillars. 


OF  THE  EARLIER  VERTEBRATA.  93 

manifested  in  the  flesh,  under  divers  such  modifications,  upon 
this  planet,  long  prior  to  the  existence  of  those  animal  species 
that  actually  exemplify  it." 

But  vvhile  we  find  place  in  that  geological  history  in  which 
every  character  is  an  organism,  for  the  "  ideal  exemplar"  of 
Professor  Owen,  we  find  no  place  in  it  for  the  vertebree-dc- 
vcloped  skull  of  Professor  Oken.  The  true  genealogy  of  the 
head  runs  in  an  entirely  different  line.  The  nerves  of  the 
cerebral  senses  did  not,  we  find,  originate  cerebral  verte- 
brae, seeing  that  the  heads  of  the  first  and  second  geologic 
periods  had  their  cerebral  nerves,  but  not  their  cerebral  verte- 
brae ;  and  that  what  are  regarded  as  cerebral-vertebrae  ap- 
pear for  the  first  time,  not  in  the  early  fishes,  but  in  the 
reptiles  of  the  Coal  formation.  The  line  of  succession 
through  the  fish,  indicated  by  the  Continental  assertor  of  the 
development  hypothesis,  is  a  line  cut  off*.  All  the  existing 
evidence  conspires  to  show  that  the  placoid  heads  of  the  Si- 
lurian system  were,  like  the  placoid  heads  of  the  recent 
period,  mere  cartilaginous  boxes  ;  and  that  in  the  succeeding 
system  there  existed  ganoidal  heads,  that  to  the  internal  car- 
tilaginous box  added  external  plates  of  bone,  the  homologues, 
apparently,  —  so  far  at  least  as  the  merely  cuticular  could  be 
representative  of  the  endo-skeletal,  —  of  the  opercular,  max- 
illary, frontal,  and  occipital  bones  in  the  osseous  fishes  of  a 
long  posterior  period,  —  fishes  that  were  not  ushered  upon  the 
scene  until  after  the  appearance  of  the  reptile  in  its  highest 
forms,  and  of  even  the  marsupiel  quadruped. 


94  STRUCTURE 


THE  ASTEF.OLEPIS,  ITS   STRUCTUEE,  BULK,  AND 
ASPECT. 


With  the  reader,  if  he  has  accompanied  me  thus  far,  I  shall 
now  pass  on  to  the  consideration  of  the  remains  of  the  Astero- 
lepis.  Our  preliminary  acquaintance  with  the  cerebral  pecu- 
liarities of  a  few  of  its  less  gigantic  contemporaries  will  be 
found  of  use  in  enabling  us  to  determine  regarding  a  class  of 
somewhat  resembling  peculiarities  which  characterized  this 
hugest  Ganoid  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone. 

The  head  of  the  Asterolepis,  like  the  heads  of  all  the  other 
Coelacanths,  and  of  all  the  Dipterians,  was  covered  with  osse- 
ous plates,  —  its  body  with  osseous  scales ;  and,  as  I  have 
already  had  occasion  to  mention,  it  is  from  the  star-like  tu- 
bercles by  which  the  cerebral  plates  were  fretted  that  M. 
Eichwald  bestowed  on  the  creature  its  generic  name.  Agas- 
siz  has  even  erected  species  on  certain  varieties  in  the  pat- 
tern of  the  stars,  as  exhibited  on  detached  fragments;  but 
I  am  far  from  being  satisfied  that  we  are  to  seek  in  their 
peculiarities  of  style  the  characters  by  which  the  several 
species  were  distinguished.  The  stellar  form  of  the  tu- 
bercle seems  to  have  been  its  normal  or  most  perfect  form, 
as  it  was  also,  with  certain  modifications,  that  of  the  tuber- 
cle of  the  Coccosteus  and  Pterichthys ;  but  its  development 
as  a  complete  star  was  comparatively  rare  :  in  most  cases  the 
tubercles  existed  without  the  rays,  —  frequently  in  the  insu- 


OF    THE    ASTEROLEPIS.  95 

lated  pap-like  shape,  but  not  rare.y  confluent,  or  of  an  elon- 
gated or  bent  form  ;  and  when  to  these  the  characteristic 
rays  were  added,  the  stars  produced  were  of  a  rather  eccen- 
tric order,  —  stars  somewhat  resembling  the  shadows  of  stars 
seen  in  water.  Individual  specimens  have  already  been 
found,  on  which,  if  we  recognize  the  form  of  the  tubercle  as 
a  specific  character,  several  spe- 
cies might  be  erected.  The  ac- 
companying wood-cut  (fig.  24)  rep- 
resents, from  a  Thurso  specimen, 
what  seems  to  be  the  true  normal 
pattern  of  these  cerebral  carvings. 
Seen  in  profile   (b)  the  tubercles  -,<-;^<r:^3- 

resemble  httle  hillocks,  perforated    ^   — — _-«?^-^ 

.     ,  1     •      1  1         'IT  c     Dermal  tvhercles  of  Asterolepis, 

at   their   base   by  single   lines  of  .,,      ,      •,•      .      n 

•'  °  (Mag.  two  diameters.) 

thickly-set  caves  ;  while  seen  from 

above,  (a,)  the  narrow  piers  of  bone  by  which  the  caves  are 
divided  take  the  form  of  rays.  The  reader  will  scarce  fail 
to  recognise  in  this  print  the  coral  Monticularia  of  Lamarck, 
or  to  detect,  in  at  least  the  profile,  the  peculiarity  which  sug- 
gested the  name. 

The  scales  whi:;h  covered  the  creature's  body  (fig.  25) 
were,  in  proportion  to  its  size,  considerably  smaller  and  thinner 
than  those  of  the  Holoptychius,  which,  however,  they  greatly 
resemble  in  their  general  style  of  sculpture.  Each,  on  the 
lower  part  of  its  exposed  field,  was,  we  see,  fretted  by  longi- 
tudinal anastomosing  ridges,  which,  in  the  upper  part,  break 
into  detached  angular  tubercles,  placed  with  the  apex  down- 
wards, and  hollowed,  leaf-like,  in  the  centre  ;  while  that  cov- 
ered portion  which  was  overlaid  by  the  scales  immediately 
above  we  find  thickly  pitted  by  microscopic  hollows,  that  give 
to  this  part  of   the   field,   viewed   under  a  tolerably  high 


96 


STEUCTtJBE 


Fig.  25. 


POUTIOX  OF 
CAUVKn  SVR- 
FACE  OF  SCALE, 

(Mag.  four  di- 
ameters.) 


OCALES   OF  ASTEROI.EPIS. 

(Nat.  size.) 
^f   si^fcce  of  scale.  b.  Exterior  surface. 

iiiagnifying  power,  a  honeycombed  appearance. 
1  ho  central  and  lower  parts  of  the  interior  sur- 
face of  the  scale  (a)  are  in  most  of  the  speci- 
mens irregularly  roughened  ;  while  a  broad, 
smooth  band,  which  runs  along  the  top  and 
sides,  and  seems  to  have  furnished  the  line  of 
attachment  to  the  creature's  body,  is  compara- 
tively smooth.  The  exterior  carvings,  though 
they  demand  the  assistance  of  the  lens  to  see 
them  aright,  are  of  s'ngular  elegance  and 
beauty ;  as  perhaps  th )  uccompanying  wood- 
cut, (fig.  26,)  whici^  g'vt.'  a  ^laguified  view  of  a 
portion  of  the  scale  iininev\.iiiery  above  (b)  from 
the  middle  of  the  honeycombed  field  on  the 
right  side,  to  where  the  anastomosing  ridges 


OF    THE    ASTEROLEPIS.  97 

bend  gracefully  in  their  descent,  may  in  some  degree  serve  to 
show.  I  have  seen  a  richly  inlaid  coat  of  mail,  which  was 
once  worn  by  the  puissant  Charles  the  Fifth  ;  but  its  elaborate 
carvings,  though  they  belonged  to  the  age  of  Benvenuto 
Cellini,  were  rude  and  unfinished,  compared  with  those  which 
fretted  the  armor  of  the  Asterolepis. ' 

The  creature's  cranial  buckler,  which  was  of  great  size 
and  strength,  might  well  be  mistaken  for  the  carapace  of  some 
Chelonian  fish  of  no  inconsiderable  bulk.  The  cranial  buck- 
lers of  the  larger  Dipterians  were  ample  enough  to  have  cov- 
ered the  corresponding  part  in  the  skulls  of  our  middle-sized 
market-fish,  such  as  the  haddock  and  whiting ;  the  buckler 
of  a  Coccosteus  of  the  extreme  size  would  have  covered,  if  a 
little  altered  in  shape,  the  upper  surface  of  the  skull  of  a  cod  ; 
but  the  cranial  buckler  of  Asterolepis,  from  which  the  accom- 
panying wood-cut  was  taken,  (fig.  27,)  would  have  considerably 
more  than  covered  the  corresponding  part  in  the  skull  of  a 
large  horse  ;  and  I  have  at  least  one  specimen  in  my  collec- 
tion which  would  have  fully  covered  the  front  skull  cf  an  ele- 
phant. In  the  smaller  specimens,  the  buckler  somewhat 
resembles  a  laborer's  shovel  divested  of  its  handle,  and  sore- 
ly rust-eaten  along  its  lower  or  cutting  edge.  It  consisted 
of  plates,  connected  at  the  edges  by  flat  squamous  sutures,  or, 
as  a  joiner  might  perhaps  say,  glued  together  in  bevelled  joints. 
And  in  consequence  of  this  arrangement,  the  same  plates 
which  seem  broad  on  the  exterior  surface  appear  compara- 
tively narrow  on  the  interior  one,  and  vice  versa  ;  the  occipi- 
tal plate,  (a,)  which,  running  from  the  nape  along  the  centre 
of  the  buckler,  occupies  so  considerable  a  space  on  its  outer 
surface,  exhibits  inside  a  superficies  reduced  at  least  one  half. 
Like  nine  tenths  of  its  contemporaries,  the  Asterolepis  ex- 
hibits the  little  central  plate  between  the  eyes;  but  the 
9 


98 


STRUCTURE 


Fig.   27. 


C&ANIAX  BT7CKLEB  OF  ASTEB0LEPI8. 

(One  fifth  nat.  size,  linear.) 

eye  orbits,  unlike  those  of  the  Coccosteus,  and  of  all  tne 
Dipterian  genera,  which  were  half-scooped  out  of  the  cranial 
buckler,  half-encircled  by  detached  plates,  were  placed  com- 
pletely within  the  field  of  the  buckler,  —  a  circumstance 
in  which  they  resemble  the  eye  orbits  of  the  PierichthySy 
and,  among  existing  fish,  those  of  the  sea-wolf.  The 
characteristic  is  also  a  distinctive  one  in  Cuvier's  second 
family  of  the  Acanthopterygii,  —  the  "  fishes  with  hard 
cheeks."  A  deep  line  immediately  over  the  eyes,  which, 
however,  indicated  no  suture,  but  seems  to  have  been  mere- 
ly ornamental,  forms  a  sort  of  rudely  tatooed  eyebrow ; 
the  marginal  lines  parallel  to  the  lateral  edges  of  the  buck- 
ler were  also  mere  tatooings  ;  but  all  the  others  indicated 
joints  which,  though  more  or  less  anchylosed,  had  a   real 


OF   THE   ASTBROLEPIS.  99 

existence.  So  flat  was  the  surface,  that  the  edge  of  a  ruler 
rests  upon  it,  in  my  several  specimens,  both  lengthwise  and 
across  ;  but  it  was  traversed  by  two  flat  ridges,  which,  stretch- 
ing from  the  corners  of  the  latero-posterior,  i.  e.  parietal, 
plates,  (J,  6,)  converged  at  the  little  plate  between  the  eyes ; 
while  along  the  centre  of  the  depressed  angle  which  they 
formed,  a  third  ridge,  equally  flat  with  the  others,  ran  towards 
the  same  point  of  convergence  from  the  nape.  The  three 
ridges,  when  strongly  relieved  by  a  slant  light,  resemble 
not  inadequately  an  impression,  on  a  large  scale,  of  the 
Queen's  broad  arrow. 

Fig.  28. 


INNER  8UEFACE  OF  CRAXIAL   BUCKLLER   OF   ASTEBOLEPIB. 

(One  fifth  nat.  size,  linear.) 

The  inner  surface  of  the  cranial  buckler  of  Asterolepis,  (fig. 
28,)  —  that  which  rested  on  the  cartilaginous  box  which 
formed  the  creature's  interior  skull,  —  stands  out  in  bo.der 
relief  from  the  stone  than  its  outer  surface,  and  forms  a  more 


100  STRUCTURE 

picturesque  object.  Like  the  inner  surfaces  of  the  bucklers 
of  Coccosteus  and  Pterichthys,  but  much  more  thickly  than 
these,  it  was  traversed  by  minute  channelled  markings,  some- 
what resembling  those  striae  which  may  be  detected  in  the 
flatter  bones  of  the  ordinary  fishes,  and  which  seem  in  these 
to  be  mere  interstices  between  the  osseous  fibres.  And  in  the 
plates,  as  in  the  bones,  they  radiate  from  the  centres  of  ossifi- 
cation, which  are  comparatively  dense  and  massy,  towards  the 
thinner  overlapping  edges.  These  radiating  lines  are  equally 
well  marked  in  the  cerebral  bones  of  the  human  foetus.  The 
three  converging  ridges  on  the  outer  surface  we  find  on  the 
inxier  surface  also, — the  lateral  ones  a  little  bent  in  the  mid- 
dle, but  so  directly  opposite  those  outside,  that  the  thicken- 
ing of  the  buckler  which  takes  place  along  their  line  is  at 
least  as  much  a  consequence  of  their  inner  as  of  their  outer 
elevation  over  the  general  platform.  A  fourth  bar  ran 
transversely  along  the  nape,  and  formed  the  cross  beam  on 
which  the  others  rested ;  for  the  three  longitudinal  ridges 
may  be  properly  regarded  as  three  strong  beams,  which,  ex- 
tending from  the  transverse  beam  at  the  nape  to  the  front, 
where  they  converged  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel  at  the  nave, 
gave  to  the  cranial  roof  a  degree  of  support  of  which,  from 
its  great  flatness,  it  may  have  stood  in  need.  In  cranial 
bucklers  in  which  the  average  thickness  of  the  plates  does 
not  exceed  three  eighth  parts  of  an  inch,  their  thickness  in 
the  centre  of  the  ridges  exceeds  three  quarters.  The  head 
of  the  largest  crocodile  of  the  existing  period  is  defended 
by  an  armature  greatly  less  strong  than  that  worn  by  the 
Asierolepis  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone.  Why  this 
ancient  Ganoid  shoild  have  been  so  ponderously  helmed 
we  can  but  doubtfully  guess ;  we  only  know,  that  when  na- 
are  arms  her  soldiery,  there  are  assailants  to  be  resisted  and 


OF    THE    ASTEROLEPIS.  101 

a  state  of  war  to  be  maintained.  The  posterior  central  plate, 
the  homologuc  apparently  of  the  occipital  bone,  was  curiously 
carved  into  an  ornate  massive  leaf,  like  one  of  the  larger 
leaves  of  a  Co..*nthian  capital,  and  terminated  beneath, 
where  the  stem  s.-^uld  have  been,  in  a  strong  osseous  knob, 
fashioned  like  a  i^ike  head.  Two  plates  immediately  over  it, 
the  homologues  of  the  superior  frontal  bone,  with  the  little 
nasal  plate  which,  perched  atop  in  the  middle,  lay  between  the 
creature's  eyes,  resembled  the  head  and  breast  in  the  female 
figure,  at  least  not  less  closely  than  those  of  the  "  lady  in  the 
lobster  ;  "  the  posterior  frontal  plates  in  which  the  outer  and 
nether  half  of  the  eye  orbits  were  hollowed  formed  a  pair  of 
sweeping  wings,  and  thus  in  the  centre  of  the  buckler  we  are 
presented  with  the  figure  of  an  angel,  robed  and  winged,  and 
of  which  the  large  sculptured  leaf  forms  the  body,  traced  in 
a  style  in  no  degree  more  rude  than  we  might  expect  to  see 
exemplified  on  the  lichen-encrusted  shield  of  some  ancient 
tombstone  of  that  House  of  Avenel  which  bore  as  its  arms  the 
effigies  of  the  Spectre  Lady.  Children  have  a  peculiar  knack 
in  detecting  such  resemblances ;  and  the  discovery  of 
the  angel  in  the  cranium  of  the  Asterolepis  I  owe  to  one  of 
mine. 

It  is  on  this  inner  side  of  the  cranial  buckler,  where  there 
are  no  such  pseudo-joinings  indicated  as  on  the  external  sur- 
face, that  the  homologies  of  the  plates  of  which  it  is  com- 
posed can  be  best  traced.  It  might  be  well,  however,  ere 
setting  one's  self  to  the  work  of  comparison,  to  examine  the 
skulls  of  a  few  of  the  osseous  fishes  of  our  coast,  and  to  maik 
how  very  considerably  they  differ  from  one  another  in  their 
lines  of  suture  and  their  general  form.  The  cerebral  divis- 
ions of  the  conger-eel,  for  instance,  are  very  unlike  those  of 
the  haddock  or  whiting ;  and  the  sutures  in  the  head  of  the 
9* 


102 


STRXrCTUEE 


gurnard  are  dissimilarly  arranged  from  those  in  the  head  of 
the  perch.  And  after  tracing  the  general  type  in  the  more 
anDmalous  forms,  and  finding,  with  Cuvier,  that  in  even  these 
the  "  skull  consists  of  the  same  bones,  though  much  subdivid- 
ed, as  the  skulls  of  the  other  vertebrata,"  we  will  be  the  bet- 
ter qualified  for  grappling  with  the  not  greater  anomalies 
which  occur  in  the  cranial  buckler  of  the  Asterolepis.  The 
occipital  plate,  A^  a,  a,  (fig.  29,)  occupies  its  ordinary  place 

Fig.  29. 


PLATE  OF  CRANIAl,  BUCKLES  OF  ASTEE0LEFI3. 


opposite  the  centre  of  the  nape  ;  the  two  parietals,  B,  B,  rest 
beside  it  in  their  usual  ichthyic  position  of  displacement ;  the 
superior  frontal  we  find  existing,  as  in  the  young  of  many  ani- 
mals, in  two  pieces,  C,  C  ;  the  nasal  plate  I,  placed  immediately 
m  advance  of  it,  is  flanked,  as  in  the  cod,  by  the  anterior  front- 
als,  D,  D  ;  the  posterior  frontals,  F,  F,  which,  when  viewed 
as  in  the  print,  from  beneath,  seem  of  considerable  size,  and 


OF   THE   ASTEROLEPIS.  103 

describe  aterally  and  posteriorly  about  one  half  the  eye 
orbits,  have  their  area  on  the  exterior  surface  greatly  reduced 
by  the  overriding  squamose  sutures  of  the  plates  to  which 
they  join  ;  and  lastly,  two  of  these  overlying  plates,  E,  E, — 
which,  occurring  in  the  line  of  the  lateral  bar  or  beam,  are 
of  great  strength  and  thickness,  and  lie  for  two  thirds  of  their 
length  along  the  parietals,  and  for  the  remaining  third  along 
the  superior  frontals,  —  represent  the  mastoid  bones.  Such, 
so  far  as  I  have  been  yet  able  to  read  the  cranial  buckler 
of  the  Asterolepis^  seem  to  be  the  homologies  of  its  component 
plates. 

There  were  no  parts  of  the  animal  more  remarkable  than 
its  jaws.  The  under  jaws,  —  for  the  nether  maxillary  con- 
sisted, in  this  fish,  as  in  the  placoid  fishes,  and  in  the  quad- 
Tupeds  generally,  of  two  pieces  joined  in  the  middle, — were, 
like  those  of  the  Holoptychius,  boxes  of  bone,  which  enclosed 
central  masses  of  cartilage.  The  outer  and  under  sides  were 
thickly  covered  with  the  characteristic  star-like  tubercles ;  and 
along  the  upper  margin  or  lip  there  ran  a  thickly-set  row 
of  small  broadly-based  teeth,  planted  as  directly  on  the  edge 
of  the  exterior  plate  as  iron  spikes  on  the  upper  edge  of  a 
gate,  (fig.  30.)     Mr.  Parkinson  expresses  some  wonder,  in 

Fig,  30. 


POKTION   OP  UNDER  JA^W   OF  ASTEROLEPIS,  (OUTER    BIDS.) 

(One  half  nat.  size.) 


104  STRUCTITRE 

his  work  on  fossils,  that,  in  a  fine  ichthyolite  in  the  British 
Museum,  not  only  the  teeth  should  have  been  preserved,  but 
also  the  lips ;  but  we  now  know  enough  of  the  construction 
of  the  ancient  Ganoids  to  cease  wondering.  The  lips  were 
formed  of  as  solid  bone  as  the  teeth  themselves,  and  had 
as  fair  a  chance  of  being  preserved  entire  ;  just  as  the 
metallic  rim  of  a  cogged  wheel  has  as  fair  a  chance  of  being 
preserved  as  the  metallic  cogs  that  project  from  it.  Immedi- 
ately behind  the  front  row,  —  m  which  the  teeth  present  the 
ordinary  ichthyic  appearance,  —  there  ran  a  thinly-set  row 
of  huge  reptile  teeth,  based  on  an  interior  platform  of 
bone,  which  formed  the  top  of  the  cartilage-enclosing  box 
composing  the  jaw.  These  were  at  once  bent  outwards  and 
twisted  laterally,  som3what  like  nails  that  have  been  drawn 
out  of  wood  by  the  claw  of  a  carpenter's  hammer,  and  bent 
awry  with  the   wrench,  (fig.   31.)      They   were    furrowed 

Fig.  31. 


POKTIOX  OF  XrNDER  JAW  OF  ASTEB0LEPI3,  (INNER  SIDE.) 

(One  half  nat.  size.) 

longitudinally  from  point  to  base  by  minute  thickly-set  striae  , 
and  were  furnished  laterally,  in  most  of  the  specimens, 
though  not  in  all,  with  two  sharp  cutting  edges.  The  reptile 
had  as  yet  no  existence  in  creation ;  but  we  see  its  future 


OF    THE   ASTEEOLEPIS. 


105 


coming  symbolized  in  the  dentition  of  this  ancient  Ganoid  : 
it,  as  it  were,  shows  us  the  crocodile  lying  entrenched  behind 
the  fish.  The  interior  structure  of  these  reptile  teeth  is 
very  remarkable.  In  the  longitudinal  section  we  find 
numerous  cancelli,  ranged  lengthwise  along  the  outer 
edges,  but  much  crossed,  net-like,  within,  —  greatly  more 
open  towards  the  base  than  at  the  point,  —  and  giving  place 
in  the  centre  to  a  hollow  space,  occasionally  traversed  by  a 
few  slim  osseous  partitions.  In  the  transverse  section  these 
cancelli  are  found  to  radiate  from  the  open  centre  towards 
the  circumference,  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel  from  the 
nave ;  and  each  spoke  seems  as  if,  like  Aaron's  rod,  it  had 
become  instinct  with  vegetative  life,  and  had  sprouted  into 
branch  and  blossom.  Seen  in  a  microscope  of  limited  field, 
that  takes  in,  as  in  the  accompanying  print,  (fig.  32,)  not  more 


Kg.  32. 


yOBTION  Cr  TEANSVEKSE  SECTION  0?  KEPTILE  TOOTH  OF   ASTEBOLEFIS 

a.  Nat.  size.  b.  Mag.  twelve  diametert. 


106 


STEUCTUEE 


than  a  fourth  part  of  the  section,  the  appearance  presented  is 
that  of  a  well-trained  wall  tree.  And  hence  the  generic 
name  Dendrodus,  given  by  Professor  Owen  to  teeth  found 
detached  in  the  deposits  of  Moray,  when  the  creatures  to 
which  they  had  belonged  were  still  unknown,  —  a  name, 
however,  which  will,  I  suspect,  be  found  synonymous  rather 
with  that  of  a  family  than  of  a  genus ;  for  so  far  as  I  have 
yet  examined,  I  find  that  the  dendrodic  or  tree-like  tooth,  was, 
in  at  least  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  a  characteristic  of  all  the 
Coelacanth  family.  I  may  mention,  however,  as  a  curious 
subject  of  inquiry,  that  the  Cceiacanths  of  the  Coal  Measures 
seem  to  have  had  their  reptile  teeth  formed  of  pure  ivory, — 
1  substance  vrhich  I  have  not  yet  detected  among  the  reptile- 
fish  of  the  Old  Red.  Towards  the  base  of  the  reptile  teeth 
of  Asterolepis^  the  interstices  between  the  branches  greatly 
widen,  as  in  the  branches  of  a  tree  in  winter  divested  of  its 
foliage,  (fig.  33,  c;)    the   texture   also  opens   towards    the 

base  in  the  ^sA-teeth 
outside,  in  which,  how- 
ever, the  pattern  in 
the  transverse  section 
is  greatly  less  complex 
and  ornate  than  that 
which  the  reptile  teeth 
exhibits.  When  cut 
across  near  the  point, 
they  appear  each  as 
a  thick  ring,  (J,)  tra- 
versed by  lines  that 
radiate  towards  the 
half    way    down,    they 


Fig.  33. 


'*m. 


A.  Section  of  Jaw  of  Asterolepis. 
c.  Reptile  tooth  as  shown  tn  sec',  ion. 

a,  b,  4r  c-  ■R'^w  of  ichthyic  teeth  tn  dermal 
plate  of  jaw. 

B.  Magnified  representatives  of  ichthyic 
teeth,  a  and  b,  in  A. 

centre ;     when    cut    across    about 


somewhat   resemble,  seen  under  a  high    magnifying  power, 


OF    THE   ASTEROLEPIS.  107 

those  cast-iron  wheels  on  which  the  engineer  mounts  his 
railway  carriages,  (a.)  In  the  longitudinal  section  their  line 
of  junction  with  the  jaw  is  marked  by  numerous  openings, 
but  by  no  line  of  division,  and  they  appear  as  thickly  dotted 
by  what  were  once  canaliculi,  or  life  points,  as  any  portion  of 
the  dermal  bone  on  which  they  rest. 

It  seems  truly  wonderful,  when  one  considers  it,  to  what 
minute  and  obscure  ramifications  that  variety  of  pattern  which 
nature  so  loves  to  maintain  is  found  to  descend.  It  descends 
in  the  fishes,  both  recent  and  extinct,  to  even  the  microscopic 
structure  of  their  teeth ;  and  we  find,  in  consequence,  not 
less  variety  of  figure  in  the  sliced  fragments  of  the  teeth  of 
the  ichthyolites  of  a  single  formation,  than  in  the  carved  blocks 
of  an  extensive  calico  print-yard.  Each  species  has  its  own 
distinct  pattern,  as  if,  in  all  the  individuals  of  which  it  con- 
sisted, the  same  block  had  been  employed  to  stamp  it ;  and 
each  genus  its  own  general  type  of  pattern,  as  if  the  same 
radical  idea,  variously  altered  and  modified,  had  been  wrought 
upon  in  all.  In  the  Dendrodic  (Ccelacanth  ?)  family,  for  in- 
stance, it  is  the  radical  type,  that  from  a  central  nave  there 
should  radiate,  spoke-like,  a  number  of  arborescent  branches  ; 
but  in  the  several  genera  and  species  of  the  family,  the 
branches  belong,  if  I  may  so  express  myself,  to  difTerent 
shrubs,  and  present  dissimilar  outlines.  It  has  appeared  to  me, 
that  at  least  a  presumption  against  the  transmutation  of  species 
might  be  based  on  those  inherent  peculiarities  of  structure 
which  are  thus  found  to  pervade  the  entire  texture  of  the 
framework  of  animals.  If  we  find  erections  differing  from 
one  another  merely  in  external  form,  we  have  no  difficulty  in 
conceiving  how,  by  additions  and  alterations,  they  might  be 
brought  to  exhibit  a  perfect  uniformity  of  plan  and  aspect : 
transmutation,  —  development, — progression,  —  (if  one  may 


108  STRUCTT7EE 

use  such  terms,)  —  seem  possible  in  such  circumstances.  Bui 
if  the  buildings  differ  from  each  other,  not  only  in  external 
form,  but  also  in  every  brick  and  beam,  bolt  and  nail,  no  mere 
scheme  of  external  alteration  could  ever  induce  a  real  resem- 
blance. Every  brick  would  have  to  be  taken  down,  and  every 
beam  and  bolt  removed.  The  problem  could  not  be  wrought 
by  the  remodelling  of  an  old  house  :  the  only  mode  of  solving 
it  would  be  by  the  erection  of  a  new  one. 

Of  the  upper  maxillary  bones  of  the  Asterolepis,  I  only 
know  that  a  considerable  fragment  of  one  of  the  pieces, 
recognized  as  such  by  Agassiz,  has  been  found  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Thurso  by  Mr.  Dick,  unaccompanied,  however, 
by  any  evidence  respecting  its  place  or  function.  It  exhibits 
none  of  the  characteristic  tubercles  of  the  dermal  bones,  and 
no  appearance  of  teeth;  but  is  simply  a  long  bent  bone,  re- 
sembling somewhat  less  than  the  half  of  an  ancient  bow  of 
steel  or  horn,  —  such  a  bow  as  that  which  Ulysses  bended  in 
the  presence  of  the  suitors.  By  some  of  the  Russian  geolo- 
gists this  bone  was  at  first  regarded  as  a  portion  of  the  arm 
or  wing  of  some  gigantic  Pterichthys.  In  the  accompanying 
print  (fig.  34)  I  have  borrowed  the  general  outline  from  that 

Fig.  34. 


MAXILLARY   BONE  ? 

(One  fourth  nat.  size,  linear.) 


of  a  specimen  of  Professor  Asmus,  of  which  a  cast  may  be 
seen  in  the  British  Museum  ;  while  the  shaded  portion  rep- 


OF   THE   ASTEROLEPIS.  100 

resents  the  fragment  found  by  Mr.  Dick.  The  iniermaxillary 
bones,  like  the  dermal  plates  of  the  lower  jaw,  were  studded 
by  star-like  tubercles,  and  bristled  thickly  along  their  lowei 
edges  with  tiie  ichthyic  teeth,  flanked  by  teeth  of  the  reptilian 
character.  The  opercules  of  the  animal  consisted,  as  in  the 
sturgeon,  of  single  plates  (fig.  35)  of  great  massiveness  ard 
size,  thickly  tubercled  outside,    with-  ^ 

out  trace  of  joint  or  suture,  and  marked 
on  their  under  surface  by  channelled 
lines,  that  radiate,  as  in  the  other 
plates,  from  the  centre  of  ossifica- 
tion. That  space  along  the  nape 
which  intervened  between  the  oper- 
cules, was  occupied,  as  in  the   Dip-    inneh  surface  of  oper- 

,  J     r»  •     7       1  1        xU  I    ^  CULUM  OF  ASTEK0LEPI3. 

ferus  and  JJiploplerus,  by  three  plates, 

(One  fifth  nat.  size,  linear.) 

which    covered    rather    the   anterior 

portion  of  the  body  than  the  posterior  portion  of  the  head, 
and  which,  in  the  restoration  of  Osteolepis,  (fig.  13,)  appear 
as  the  plates,  9,  9,  9.  I  can  say  scarce  any  thing  regarding 
the  lateral  plates  which  lay  between  the  intermaxillaries  and 
the  cranial  buckler,  and  which  exist  in  the  Osteolepis,  fig.  13, 
as  the  plates  2,  4,  5,  6,  and  7 ;  nor  do  1  know  how  the  snout 
terminated,  save  that  in  a  very  imperfect  specimen  it  exhibits, 
as  in  the  Diplopterus  and  Osteolepis,  a  rounded  outline,  and 
was  set  with  teeth. 

That  space  comprised  within  the  arch  of  the  lower  jaws,  in 
which  the  hyoid  bone  and  branchiostegous  rays  of  the  osseous 
fishes  occur,  was  filled  by  a  single  plate  of  great  size  and 
strength,  and  of  singular  form,  (fig.  36  ;)  and  to  this  plate,  ex- 
isting as  a  steep  ridge  running  along  the  centre  of  the  interior 
surface,  and  thickening  into  a  massy  knob  at  the  anterior  ter- 
mination, that  nail-shaped  organism,  which  1  have  described 
10 


110  STRUCTURE 

Fig.  36. 


HYOID  PLATE. 

(One  ninth  nat.  size,  linear.) 

as  one  of  the  most  characteristic  bones  of  the  Asxrclepis, 
l)elonged.  In  the  Osteolepis,  the  space  corresponding  to  that 
occupied  by  this  hyoid  plate  was  filled,  as  shown  in  fig.  14, 
by  five  plates  of  not  inelegant  form  ;  and  the  divisions  of  the 
arch  resembled  those  of  a  small  Gothic  window,  in  which 
the  single  central  muUion  parts  into  two  branches  atop.  In 
the  Holopfychius  and  Glyptolepis  there  were  but  two  plates  ; 
for  the  central  mullion,  i.  e.  line  of  division,  did  not  branch 
atop  ;  and  in  the  Asterolepis,  where  there  was  no  line  of 
division,  the  strong  nail-like  bone  occupied  the  place  of  the 
central  mullion.  The  hyoidal  armature  of  the  latter  fish 
was  strongest  in  the  line  in  which  the  others  were  weakest. 
Each  of  the  five  hyoid  plates  of  the  Osteolepis,  or  of  the  two 
plates  of  the  Glyptolepis  or  Holoptychius,  had  its  own  centre 
of  ossification ;  and  in  the  single  plate  of  Asterolepis,  the 
centre  of  ossification,  as  shown  by  the  radiations  of  the  fibre, 
was  the  nai7-head.  This  head,  placed  in  immediate  con- 
tact with  the  strong  boxes  of  bone  which  composed  the 
under  jaw,  just  where  their  central  joining  occurred,  seems  to 
have  lent  them  a  considerable  degree  of  support,  which  at 
such  a  juncture  may  have  been  not  unnecessary.  In  some  of 
the  nail-heads,  belonging,  it  is  probable,  to  a  different  species 
of  Asterolepis  from  that  in  A'hich  the  nail  figured  in  page  7 


OF   THE   ASTEROLEPIS. 


Ill 


Fig.  37. 


and  the  plate  in  the  opposite  page,  occurrerf,  —  for  its  general 
form  is  different,  (fig.  37,)  —  there  appear  well- 
marked  ligamentary  impressions  closely  resem- 
bling that  little  spongy  pit  in  the  head  of  the 
human  thigh-bone  to  which  what  is  termed  the 
round  ligament  is  attached.  The  entire  hyoid- 
plate,  viewed  on  its  outer  side,  resembles  in  form 
the  hyoid-bone,  —  or  cartilage  rather,  —  of  the 
spotted  dog-fish,  (Scyllium  stellare ;)  but  its  area 
was  at  least  a  hundred  times  more  extensive 
than  in  the  largest  Scyllium,  and,  like  all  the 
dermal  plates  of  the  Asterolepis,  it  was  thickly 
fretted  by  the  characteristic  tubercles.  In  the 
Ray,  as  in  the  Sharks,  the  piece  of  thin  cartilage 
of  which  this  plate  seems  the  homologue,  is  a 
flat,  semi-transparent  disk  ;  and  there  is  no  part 
of  the  animal  in  which  the  progress  of  those  (One  half  nat. 
bony  molecules  which    encrust    the    internal  ^^^^-j 

framework  may  be  more  distinctly  traced,  as  if  in  the  act  of 
creeping  over  what  they  cover,  in  slim  threads  or  shooting 
points, —  and  much  resembling  new  ice  creeping  in  a  frosty 
evening  over  the  surface  of  a  pool. 

That  suite  of  shoulder-bones  that  in  the  osseous  fishes 
forms  the  belt  or  frame  on  which  the  opercules  rest,  and  fur- 
nishes the  base  of  the  pectorals,  was  represented  in  the  As- 
terolepis,  as  in  the  sturgeon,  by  a  ring  of  strong  osseous  plates, 
which,  in  one  of  the  two  species  of  which  trace  is  to  be  found 
among  the  rocks  of  Thurso,  were  curiously  fretted  on  theii 
external  surfaces,  and  in  the  other  species  comparatively 
smooth.  The  largest,  or  coracoidian  plate  of  the  ring,  as  it 
occurs  in  the  more  ornate  species,  (fig.  38,)  might  be  readily 
enough  mistaken,  when  seen  with  only  its  surface  exposed. 


NAIL-LIKB 

BONE  OF  HYOID 

PLATE. 


1 12  STEUCTURE 

Kg.  38. 


SHOTTLBEB  (l.  C.   CORACOID  ?)   PLATE   OF  ASTEROLEPIS. 

(One  third  nat.  size,  linear.) 

for  the  ichthyodorulite  of  some  large  fisli,  allied,  mayhap,  to 
the  Gyracanihiis  formosus  of  the  Coal  Measures  ;  but  when 
detached  from  the  stone,  the  hollow  form  and  peculiar  striae 
of  the  inferior  surface  serve  to  establish  its  true  character  as 
a  dermal  plate.  The  diagonal  furrowings  which  traversed 
it,  as  the  twisted  flutings  traverse  a  Gothic  column  moulded 
after  the  type  of  the  Apprentice  Pillar  in  Roslin  chapel,  seem 
to  have  underlaid  the  edge  of  the  opercule  ;  at  least  I  find  a 
similar  arrangement  in  the  shoulder-plates  of  a  large  species 
of  Diplopterus,  which  are  deeply  grooved  and  furrowed  where 
the  opercule  rested,  as  if  with  the  design  of  keeping  up  a 
communication  between  the  branchiae  and  the  external  ele- 
meiit,  even  when  the  gill-cover  was  pressed  closely  down 
upon  them.  And,  —  as  in  these  shoulder  plates  of  the  Dip- 
lopterus  the  furrows  yield  their  place  beyond  the  edge  of  the 
opercule  to  the  punctulated  enamel  common  to  the  outer 
surface  of  all  the  creature's  external  plates  and  scales,  —  we 
find  them  yielding  their  place,  in  the  shoulder-plates  of  the 
Asterolepis,  to  the  starred  tubercles. 

A  few  detached  bones,  that  bear  on  their  outer  surfaces 
the  dermal  markings,  must  have  belonged  to  that  angular- 
shaped  portion  of  the  head  which  intervened  between  the 
cranial  buckler  and  the  intermaxillary  bone  ;  but  the  key 
for  assigning  to  them  their  proper  place  is  still  to  find ;  and 
I  suspeci  that  no  amount  of  skill  on  the  part  of  the  compa- 


OF    THE    ASTEROLEPIS. 


113 


rative  anatomist  will  ever  qualify  him  to  complete  the  work 
of  restoration  without  it.  I  have  submitted  to  the  reader  the 
cranial  bucklers  o^  Jive  several  genera  of  the  ganoids  of  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone ;  but  no  amount  of  study  bestowed  on 
these  would  enable  even  the  most  skilful  ichthyologist  tc 
restore  a  sixth ;  nor  is  the  lateral  area  of  the  head,  which 
was,  I  find,  variously  occupied  in  each  genus,  less  difficult 
to  lestore  than  the  buckler  which  surmounted  it.  Two  of 
the  more  entire  of  these  dermal  bones  I  have  figured  (fig.  39, 
a  and  h)  in  the  hope  of  assisting  future  inquirers,  who,  were 

Fig.  39. 
12  3 


SESUAX  SOKES  OF  ASTEB0LEFI3. 

(One  third  nat.  size,  linear.) 

they  to  pick  up  all  the  other  plates,  might  yet  be  unable, 
lacking  the  figured  ones,  to  complete  the  whole.  The 
curiously-shaped  plate  a,  represented  in  its  various  sides  by 
the  figures  1,  2,  3,  is  of  an  acutely  angular  form  in  the  trans- 
verse section,  (the  external  surface,  1,  forming  an  angle  which 
varies  from  thirty  to  forty-five  degrees  with  the  base,  3  ;) 
and  as  it  lay,  it  is  probable  when  in  its  original  place, 
10* 


114 


STEirCTTJKE 


immediately  under  the  edge  of  the  cranial  buckler,  it  may 
have  served  to  commence  the  line  of  deflection  from  the  flat 
top  of  the  head  to  the  steep  descent  of  the  sides,  just  as  what 
are  technically  termed  the  spur-siones  in  a  gable-head  serve 
to  commence  the  line  of  deflection  from  the  vertical  outline 
Df  the  wall  to  the  inclined  line  of  the  roof,  or  as  the  spring- 
stones  of  ah  arch  serve  to  commence  the  curve.  A  few 
internal  bones  in  my   possession   are   curious,  but  exceed- 


Fig.  40. 


ingly  puzzling.  Tha  bone  a,  fig. 
40,  which  resembles  a  rib,  or  bran- 
chiostegous  ray,  of  one  of  the  or- 
dinary fishes,  formed  apparently 
part  of  that  osseous  style  which 
in  fishes  such  as  the  haddock  and 
cod  we  find  attached  to  the  suite 
of  shoulder-bones,  and  which,  ac- 
cording to  Cavier,  is  the  analogue 
of  the  coracoidian  bone,  and,  ac- 
cording to  Professor  Owen,  the  ana- 
logue of  the  clavicle.  Fig.  5  is  a 
mere  fragment,  broken  at  both  ends, 
but  exhibiting,  in  a  state  of  good  keeping,  lateral  expan- 
sions, like  those  of  an  ancient  halbert.  Fig.  c,  41,  which 
is  also  a  fragment,  though  a  more  considerable  one,  bears 
in  its  thicker  and  straighter  edge  a  groove  like  that  of  an 
ichthyodorulite,  which,  however,  the  bone  itself  in  no 
degree  resembles.  Fig.  rf  is  a  flat  bone,  of  a  type  common 
in  the  skeleton  of  fishes,  but  which,  in  mammals,  we  find 
exemplified  in  but  the  scapulars.  It  seems,  like  these,  to 
have  furnished  the  base  to  which  some  suite  of  movable 
bones  was  articulated,  —  in  all  likelihood  that  proportion  of 
the  carpal  bonelets  of  the  pectoral  fins  which  are  attached  in 


INTSKNAIi  BONES  OF  ASTEBO- 
LEPIS. 

(One  half  nat.  size,  linear.) 


OF   THE   ASTEROLEPIS. 
Fig.  41. 


115 


IKTZ3NAI.  BOITES    OF  ASTEROLEPIS. 

(One  third  nat.  size,  linear.) 

the  osseous  fishes  to  its  apparent  homologue,  the  radius.  Fig. 
e,  a  slim  light  bone,  which  narrows  and  thickens  in  the  centre, 
and  flattens  and  broadens  at  each  end,  was  probably  a  scapula 
or  shoulder-blade,  —  a  bone  which  in  most  fishes  splices  on, 
as  a  sailor  would  say,  by  squamose  jointings,  to  the  coracoi- 
dian  bone  at  the  one  end,  and  the  super-scapular  bone  at  the 
other.  As  indicated  by  its  size,  it  must  have  belonged  to  a 
small  individual :  it  is,  however,  twice  as  long,  and  about  ssix 
times  as  bulky,  as  the  scapula  of  a  large  cod. 

Of  the  bone  represented  in  fig.  42, 1  have  determined,  from 
a  Cromarty  specimen,  the  place  and  use  :  it  formed  the  inte- 
rior base  to  which  one  of  the  ventral  fins  was  attached.  In 
all  fishes  the  bones  of  the  hinder  extremities  are  inadequately 
represented :  in  none  do  we  find  the  pelvic  arch  complete ; 
and  to  that  nether  portion  of  it  which  we  do  find  represented, 
and  which  Professor  0\<en  regards  as  the  homologue  of  the 


116  STRUCTURE. 

Fig.  42. 


ISCHITJU   OP   ASTEH0LEPI8. 

(One  half  nat.  size,  linear.) 

OS  ischium  or  hip-bone,  the  homologues  of  the  metatarsal  and 
oe-bones  are  attached,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  bones  of  the 
thigh  and  leg.  In  the  Abdominales,  —  fishes  such  as  the 
salmon  and  carp,  —  that  have  the  ventrals  placed  behind  the 
abdomen,  in  the  position  analogous  to  that  in  which  the 
hinder  legs  of  the  reptiles  and  mammals  occur,  the  ischiatic 
bones  generally  exist  as  flat  triangular  plates,  whh  their  heads 
either  turned  inwards  and  downwards,  as  in  the  herring,  or 
outwards  and  downwards,  as  in  the  pike  ;  whereas  in  some  of 
the  cartilaginous  fishes,  such  as  the  Rays  and  Sharks,  they 
exist  as  an  undivided  cartilaginous  band,  stretched  transversely 
from  ventral  to  ventral.  And  such,  with  but  an  upward  di 
rection,  appears  to  have  been  their  position  in  the  Asterolepis 
They  seem  to  have  united  at  the  narrow  neck  A,  over  the 
middle  of  the  lower  portion  of  the  abdomen ;  and  to  the 
notches  of  the  flat  expansion  B,  —  notches  which  exactly  re- 
semble those  of  the  immensely  developed  carpal  bones  of  the 
Ray, — five  metatarsal  bones  were  attached,  from  which  the 
fin  expanded.  It  is  interesting  to  find  the  number  in  this 
ancient  representative  of  the  vertebrata  restricted  to  five,  —  a 
number  greatly  exceeded  in  most  of  the  existing  fishes,  but 
which  is  the  true  normal  number  of  the  vertebrate  sub-king- 
dom as  shown  in  all  the  higher  examples,  such  as  man,  the 
quadrumana,  and  in  most  of  the  carnaria.     The  form  of  this 


OF   THE   ASTEROLEPIS.  117 

bone  somewhat  resembTes  that  of  the  analogous  bone  in  those 
fishes,  such  as  the  perch  and  gurnard,  cod  and  haddock,  which 
have  their  ventrals  suspended  to  the  scapular  belt ;  but  its 
position  in  the  Cromarty  specimen,  and  that  of  the  ventrals 
in  the  various  specimens  of  the  Ccslacanth  family  in  which 
their  place  is  still  shown,  forbids  the  supposition  that  it  was 
so  suspended,  —  a  circumstance  in  keeping  with  all  the  exist- 
ing geological  evidence  on  the  subject,  which  agrees  in  indi- 
cating, that  of  the  low  type  of  fishes  that  have,  monster-like, 
their  feet  attached  to  their  necks,  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  does 
not  afford  a  trace.  This  inferior  type,  now  by  far  the  most 
prevalent  in  the  ichthyic  division  of  the  animal  kingdom,  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  introduced  until  near  the  close  of  the 
Secondary  period,  long  after  the  fish  had  been  degraded  from 
its  primal  place  in  the  fore  front  of  creation.  In  one  of  my 
specimens  a  few  fragments  of  the  rays  are  preserved,  (fig. 
43,  b.)  They  aie  about  the  eighth  part 
of  an  inch  in  diameter :  depressed  in  ^^* 

some  cases  in  the  ce'utr*>,  as  if,  over  the         a 
internal  hollow  formed  by  the  decay  of 
the  cartilaginous  centre,  the  bony  crust        * 

-     ,  .  ,     ,  J  u    J     •  a-  Single  joint  of  ray  of 

of  which  they  are  composed  had  given  Thomback. 

way  ;  and,  like  the  rays  of  the  thorn-  b.  Single  joint  of  ray  of 
back,  they  are  thickened  at  the  joints,  *  ^°  ^"* 

and  at  the  processes  by  which  they  were  attached  to  the  ischiatic 
base.  It  may  be  proper,  I  should  here  state,  that  of  some  of 
the  internal  bones  figured  above  I  have  no  better  evidence 
that  they  belonged  to  the  Asterolepis^  than  that  they  occur 
in  the  same  beds  with  the  dermal  plates  which  bear  the  char- 
acteristic star-like  markings,  —  that  they  are  of  very  consid- 
erable size,  —  and  that  they  formed  no  part  of  the  known 
fishes  of  the  formation. 


118 


STRUCTURE 


On  exactly  the  same  groands  I  infer,  that  certain  large  cop- 
rolites  of  common  occurrence  in  the  Thurso  flagstones,  which 
contain  the  broken  scales  of  Dipterians,  and  exhibit  a  curi- 
ous-y  twisted  form,  (fig.  44,)  also  belonged  to  the  Asterolepis  ; 

Fig.  44. 


COFBOLITES  OF  ASTEB0LEPI8. 

(Nat.  Size.*) 

and  from  these,  that  the  creature  was  carnivorous  in  its  hab- 
its,—  an  inference  which  the  character  of  its  teeth  fully  cor- 
roborates ;  and  farther,  that,  like  the  sharks  and  rays,  and 
Borne  of  the  extinct  Enaliosaurs,  it  possessed  the  spiral  dis- 
position of  intestine.  Paley,  in  his  chapter  on  the  compensa- 
tory contrivances  palpable  in  the  structure  of  various  animals, 
refers  to  a  peculiar  substitutory  provision  which  occurs  in  a 


•  One  of  the  Thurso  coprolites  in  my  possession  is  about  one 
fourth  longer  than  the  larger  of  the  two  specimens  figured  here,  and 
pearly  thrice  as  broad. 


OF   THE   ASTESOLEPIS.  119 

certain  amphibious  animal  described  in  the  Memoirs  of  the 
French  Academy.  "  The  reader  will  remember,"  he  says, 
"  what  we  have  already  observed  concerning  the  intestinal 
canal,  —  that  its  length,  so  many  times  exceeding  that  of  the 
body,  promotes  the  extraction  of  the  chyle  from  the  aliment, 
by  giving  room  for  the  lacteal  vessels  to  act  upon  it  through 
a  greater  space.  This  long  intestine,  whenever  it  occurs,  is 
in  other  animals  disposed  in  the  abdomen  from  side  to  side, 
in  returning  folds.  But  in  the  animal  now  under  our  notice, 
the  matter  is  managed  otherwise.  The  same  intention  is 
mechanically  effectuated,  but  by  a  mechanism  of  a  different 
kind.  The  animal  cf  which  I  speak  is  an  amphibious 
quadruped,  which  our  authors  call  the  Alopecias  or  sea- 
fox.  The  intestine  is  straight  from  one  end  to  the  other, 
but  in  this  straight,  and  consequently  short  intestine,  is  a 
winding,  cork-screw,  spiral  passage,  through  which  the  food, 
not  without  several  circumvolutions,  and,  in  fact,  by  a  long 
route,  is  conducted  to  its  exit.  Here  the  shortness  of  the 
gut  is  compensated  by  the  obliquity  of  the  perforation."  This 
structure  of  intestine,  which  all  the  true  Placoids  possess, 
and  at  least  the  Sturiones  among  existing  Ganoids,  seems  to 
have  been  an  exceedingly  common  one  during  both  the 
Palaeozoic  and  Secondary  periods.  It  has  left  its  impress 
on  all  the  better  preserved  coprolites  of  the  Coal  Measures, 
so  abundant  in  the  shales  of  Newhaven  and  Bardie  House, 
and  on  those  of  the  Lias  and  Chalk.  It  seems  to  be  equally 
a  characteristic  of  well  nigh  all  the  bulkier  coprolites  of  the 
Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone.*     In  these,  however,  it  manifests 


*  In  two  of  these,  in  a  collection  of  several  score,  I  have  failed 
to  detect  the  spiral  markings,  though  their  state  of  keeping  is 
decidedly  good.    There  are   other  appearances  which  lead  me  to 


120  STEUCTXIBE   OF   THE   ASTEROLEPIS. 

a  peculiar  trait,  which  I  have  failed  to  detect  in  any  of  the 
recent  fishes ;  nor  have  I  yet  seen  it  indicated,  in  at  least  the 
same  degree,  by  the  Carboniferous  or  Secondary  coprolitic 
remains.  In  the  bowels  which  moulded  the  coprolites  of 
Lyme-Regis,  of  the  Chalk,  and  of  the  Newhaven  and  Granton 
beds,  a  single  screw  must  have  winded  within  the  cylindrical 
tube,  as  a  turnpike  stair  winds  within  its  hollow  shaft ;  and 
such  also  is  the  arrangement  in  the  existing  Sharks  and 
Rays ;  whereas  the  bowels  which  moulded  the  coprolites  of 
the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  must  have  been  traversed  by 
triple  or  quadruple  screws  laid  closely  together,  as  we  find 
the  stalk  of  an  old-fashioned  wine-glass  traversed  by  its 
Ihickly-set  spiral  lines  of  thread-like  china.  And  so,  while 
on  the  surface  of  both  the  Secondary  and  Carboniferous 
coprolites  there  is  space  between  the  screw-like  lines  for 
numerous  cl'oss  markings  that  correspond  to  the  thickly  set 
veiny  branches  which  traverse  the  sides  of  the  recent  placoid 
bowel,  the  entire  surface  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  coprolites  is 
traversed  by  the  spiral  markings.  Is  there  nothing  strange  in 
the  fact,  that  after  the  lapse  of  mayhap  millions  of  years, — 
nay,  it  is  possible,  millions  of  ages,  —  we  should  be  thus  able 
to  detect  at  once  general  resemblance  and  special  dissimilarity 
in  even  the  most  perishable  parts  of  the  most  ancient  of  the 
Ganoids  ? 

I  must  advert,  in  passing,  to  a  peculiarity  exemplified  in 
the  state  of  keeping  of  the  bones  of  this  ancient  Ganoid,  in  at 
least  the  deposites  of  Orkney  and  Caithness.  The  original 
animal  matter  has  been  converted  into  a  dark-colored  bitumen. 


suspect  that  the  Asterolepis  was  not  the  onl}'  large  fish  of  the  Lower 
Old  Red  Sandstone  ;  but  my  facts  on  the  subject  are  too  inconclusive 
to  justify  aught  more  than  sedulous  inquiry. 


STATE    OF    KEEPING    OF    ITS    REMAINS.  121 

which  in  some  places,  where  the  remains  lie  thick,  pervades 
the  crevices  of  the  rocks,  and  has  not  unfrequently  been 
mistaken  for  coal.  In  its  more  solid  state  it  can  hardly  be 
distinguished,  when  used  in  sealing  a  letter,  —  a  purpose 
which  it  serves  indifferently  well,  —  from  black  wax  of  the 
ordinary  quality ;  when  more  fluid,  it  adheres  scarce  less 
strongly  to  the  hands  than  the  coal-tar  of  our  gas-works  and 
dock-yards.  Underneath  a  specimen  of  Aslerolepis,  first 
pointed  out  to  me  in  its  bed  among  the  Thurso  rocks  by  Mr. 
Dick,  and  which,  at  my  request,  he  afterwards  raised  and 
sent  me  to  Edinburgh,  packed  up  in  a  box,  there  lay  a 
quantity  of  thick  tar,  which  stuck  as  fast  to  my  fingers,  on 
lifting  out  the  pieces  of  rock,  as  if  I  had  laid  hold  of  the 
planking  of  a  newly  tarred  yawl.  What  had  been  once  the 
nerves,  muscles,  and  blood  of  this  ancient  Ganoid  still  lay 
under  its  bones,  and  reminded  me  of  the  appearance  presented 
by  the  remains  of  a  poor  suicide,  whose  solitary  grave,  dug  in 
a  sandy  bank  in  the  north  of  Scotland,  had  been  laid  open  by 
the  encroachments  of  a  river.  The  skeleton,  with  pieces  of 
the  dress  still  wrapped  round  it,  lay  at  length  along  the  sec- 
tion ;  and,  for  a  full  yard  beneath,  the  white  dry  sand  was 
consolidated  into  a  dark-colored  pitchy  mass,  by  the  altered 
animal  matter  which  had  escaped  from  it,  percolating  down- 
wards, in  the  process  of  decay. 

In  consequence  of  the  curious  chemical  change  which  has 
thus  taken  place  in  the  animal  juices  of  the  Asterolepis,  its 
remains  often  occur  in  a  state  of  beautiful  preservation  :  the 
pervading  bitumen,  greatly  more  conservative  in  its  effects 
than  the  oils  and  gums  of  an  old  Egyptian  undertaker,  has 
maintained,  in  their  original  integrity,  every  scale,  plate,  and 
bone.  They  may  have  been  much  broken  ere  they  were 
first  committed  to  the  keeping  of  the  rock,  or  in  disentangling 
U 


122  THE    ASTEROLEPIS  : 

them  from  its  rigid  embrace  ;  but  they  have,  we  find,  caught 
no  harm  when  under  its  care.  Ere  the  skeleton  of  the 
Bruce,  disinterred  after  the  lapse  of  five  centuries,  was 
recommitted  to  the  tomb,  such  measures  were  taken  to  secure 
its  preservation,  that,  were  it  to  be  again  disinterred,  even 
after  as  many  more  centuries  had  passed,  it  might  be  found 
retaining  unbroken  its  gigantic  proportions.  There  was 
molten  pitch  poured  over  the  bones,  in  a  state  of  suflicient 
fluidity  to  permeate  all  the  pores,  and  fill  up  the  central 
hollows,  and  which,  soon  hardening  around  them,  formed  a 
bituminous  matrix,  in  which  they  may  lie  unchanged  for  a 
thousand  years.  Now,  exactly  such  was  the  process  to 
which  nature  resorted  with  these  gigantic  skeletons  of  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone.  Like  the  bones  of  the  Bruce,  they  are 
bones  steeped  in  pitch ;  and  so  thoroughly  is  every  pore  and 
hollow  still  occupied,  that,  when  cast  into  the  fire,  they  flame 
like  torches.  Though  black  as  jet,  they  still  retain,  too,  in  a 
considerable  degree,  the  peculiar  qualities  of  the  original 
substance.  The  late  Mr.  George  Sanderson  of  Edinburgh, 
one  of  the  most  ingenious  lapidaries  in  the  kingdom,  and  a 
thoroughly  intelligent  man,  made  several  preparations  for  me, 
for  microscopic  examination,  from  the  teeth  and  bones ;  and 
though  they  were  by  far  the  oldest  vertebrate  remains  he  had 
ever  seen,  they  exhibited,  he  informed  me,  in  the  working, 
more  of  the  characteristics  of  recent  teeth  and  bone  than  any 
other  fossils  he  had  ever  operated  upon.  Recent  bone, 
when  in  the  course  of  being  reduced  on  the  wheel  to  the 
degree  of  thinness  necessary  to  secure  transparency,  is  apt, 
under  the  heat  induced  by  the  friction,  to  acquire  a  springy 
elasticity,  and  to  start  up  from  the  glass  slip  to  which  it  has 
been  cemented ;  whereas  bone  in  the  fossil  state  usually 
lies  as  passive,  in  such  circumstances,  as  the  stone  which  en- 


STATE    OF    KEEPING    OF    ITS    EEMAINS.  123 

velopes  it.  Mr.  Sanderson  was,  however,  surprised  to  find 
that  the  bone  of  the  Asterolepis  still  retained  its  elasticity, 
and  was  scarce  less  liable,  when  heated,  to  start  from  the 
glass, —  a  peculiarity  through  which  he  at  first  lost  several 
preparations.  I  have  seen  a  human  bone  that  had  for  ages 
been  partially  embedded  in  a  mass  of  adipocere,  partially 
enveloped  in  the  common  mould  of  a  churchyard,  exhibit 
two  very  different  styles  of  keeping.  In  the  adipocere  it  was 
as  fresh  and  green  as  if  it  had  been  divested  of  the  integu- 
ments only  a  few  weieks  previous  ;  whereas  the  portion  which 
projected  into  the  mould  had  become  brittle  and  porous,  and 
presented  the  ordinary  appearance  of  an  old  churchyard  bone. 
And  what  the  adipocere  had  done  for  the  human  bone  in  this 
case,  seems  to  have  been  done  for  the  bones  of  the  Astero' 
lepis  by  the  animal  bitumen. 

The  size  of  the  Asterolepis  must,  in  the  larger  specimens, 
have  been  very  great.  In  all  those  ganoidal  fishes  of  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone  that  had  the  head  covered  with  osseous 
plates,  we  find  that  the  cranial  buckler  bore  a  certain  defi- 
nite proportion,  —  various  in  the  several  genera  and  species, 
—  to  the  length  of  the  body.  The  drawing-master  still 
teaches  his  pupils  to  regulate  the  proportions  of  the  human 
figure  by  the  seven  head-lengths  which  it  contains ;  and 
perhaps  shows  them  how  an  otherwise  meritorious  drafts- 
man,* much  employed  half  an  age  ago  in  drawing  for  the 
wood-engraver,  used  to  render  his  figures  squat  and  ungrace- 
ful by  making  them  a  head  too  short.  Now,  those  ancient  Ga- 
noids which  possessed  a  cranial  buckler  may,  we  find,  be  also 
measured  by  head-lengths.  Thus,  in  the  Coccostcus  decipiens, 
.he  length  of  the  cranial  buckler  from  nape  to  snout  equalled 

«  The  late  Mr.  John  Thurston. 


124 


THE   ASTEEOLEPIS 


one  lifth  the  entire  length  of  the  creature  from  snout  to 
tail.  Tl.e  entire  length  of  the  Glyptolepis  was  equal  to 
about  five  one  half  times  that  of  its  cranial  buckler.  The 
Pteruhthys  was  formed  in  nearly  the  same  proportions.  The 
Diplopterus  was  fully  seven  times  the  length  of  its  buckler ; 
and  the  Osteolepis  from  six  and  a  half  to  seven.  In  all  the 
cranial  bucklers  of  the  Asterolepis  yet  found,  the  snout  is 
wanting.  The  very  fine  specimen  figured  in  page  99  (fig. 
28)  terminates  abruptly  at  the  little  plate  between  the  eyes , 
the  specimen  figured  in  page  98  (fig.  27)  terminates  at  the 
upper  line  of  the  eye.  The  terminal  portion  which  formed 
the  snout  is  wanting  in  both,  and  we  thus  lack  the  measure, 
or  module,  as  the  architect  might  say,  by  which  the  propor- 
tions of  the  rest  of  the  creature  were  regulated.  We  can, 
however,  very  nearly  approximate  to  it.  A  hyoid  plate  in 
my  collection  (fig.  45)  is,  I  find,  so  exactly  proportioned  in 
913  d  to  the  cranial  buckler,  (fig.  28,)  that  it  might  have  be- 

Fig.  45. 


HTOID  PLATE   OF  THURSO    ASTEROLEPIS.* 

(One  fifth  the  nat.  size,  linear.) 


*  The  shaded  plate,  (a,)  accidentally  presented  in  this  specimen, 
belongs  to  the  upper  part  of  the  head.  It  is  the  posterior  frontal 
plate  F,  which  half- encircled  the  eye  orbit,  (see  fig.  29  ;)  and  I  have 
introduced  it  into  the  print  here,  as  in  none  of  the  other  prints,  or  of 
my  other  specin  ens,  is  its  upper  surface  shown. 


ITS    PROBABLE    BV'^K.  125 

longed  to  the  same  individual ;  and  by  fitting  it  in  its  proper 
place,  and  then  making  the  necessary  allowance  for  the 
breadth  of  the  nether  jaw,  which  swept  two  thirds  around 
it,  and  was  surmounted  by  the  snout,  we  ascertain  that  the 
buckler,  when  entire,  must  have  been,  as  nearly  as  may  be,  a 
foot  in  length.  If  the  Aslerolepis  was  formed  in  the  propor- 
tions of  the  Coccosteus,  the  buckler  (fig.  28)  must  have  be- 
longed to  an  individual  five  feet  in  length  ;  if  in  the  propor- 
tions of  the  Pterichthys  or  Glyptolepis^  to  an  individual  five 
and  a  half  feet  in  length  ;  and  if  in  those  of  the  Diplopterus 
or  Osteolepis,  to  an  individual  of  from  six  and  a  half  to  seven 
feet  in  length.  Now  I  find  that  the  hyoid  plate  can  be  in- 
scribed —  such  is  its  form  —  in  a  semicircle,  of  which  the 
nail-shaped  ridge  in  the  middle  (if  we  strike  off"  a  minute 
portion  of  the  sharp  point,  usually  wanting  in  detached  speci- 
mens) forms  very  nearly  the  radius,  and  of  which  the  diame- 
ter equals  the  breadth  of  the  cranial  buckler,  along  a  line 
drawn  across  at  a  distance  from  the  nape,  equal  to  two  thirds 
of  the  distance  between  the  nape  and  the  eyes.  Thus,  the 
largest  diameter  of  a  hyoid  plate  which  belonged  to  a  cranial 
buckler  a  foot  in  length  is,  I  find,  equal  to  seven  one  quarter 
inches,  while  the  length  of  its  nape  somewhat  exceeds  three  five 
eighth  inches.  The  nail  of  the  Stromness  specimen  measures 
five  and  a  half  inches.  It  must  have  run  along  a  hyoid  plate 
eleven  inches  in  transverse  breadth,  and  have  been  associated 
with  a  cranial  buckler  eighteen  one  eighth  inches  in  length  ; 
and  the  Aslerolepis  to  which  it  belonged  must  have  measured 
from  snout  to  tail,  if  formed,  as  it  probably  was,  in  the  pro- 
portions of  its  brother  Coslacanth  the  Glyptolepis,  eight  feet 
three  inches  ;  and  if  in  those  of  the  Diplopterus,  from  nine 
feet  nine  to  ten  feet  six  inches.  This  oldest  of  Scottish  fish 
11* 


126  THE   ASTEROLEPIS: 

—  this  earliest-born  of  the  Ganoids  yet  known  —  was  at  least 
as  bulky  as  a  large  porpoise- 
It  was  small,  however,  compared  with  specimens  of  the 
Asterolepis  found  elsewhere.  The  hyoid  plate  figured  in 
page  110,  (fig.  36,)  —  a  Thurso  specimen  which  I  owe  to  the 
kindness  of  Mr.  Dick,  —  measures  nearly  fourteen  inches,  and 
the  cranial  buckler  of  the  same  individual,  fifteen  one  fourth 
inches,  in  breadth.  The  latter,  when  entire,  must  have 
measured  twenty-three  one  half  inches  in  length  ;  and  the  fish 
to  which  it  belonged,  if  formed  in  the  proportions  of  the 
Glyptolepis,  ten  feet  six  inches ;  and  if  in  those  of  the  Dip- 
lopterus,  from  twelve  feet  five  to  thirteen  feet  eight  inches  in 
length.  Did  the  shield  still  exist  in  its  original  state  as  a 
buckler  of  tough,  enamel-crusted  bone,  it  might  be  converted 
into  a  Highland  target,  nearly  broad  enough  to  cover  the  am- 
ple chest  of  a  Rob  Roy  or  Allan  M'Aulay,  and  strong  enough 
to  dash  aside  the  keenest  broadsword.  Another  hyoid  plate 
found  by  Mr.  Dick  measures  sixteen  one  half  inches  in 
breadth  ;  and  a  cast  in  the  British  Museum,  from  one  of  the 
Russian  specimens  of  Professor  Asmus,  (fig.  46,)  twenty-four 
inches.  The  individual  to  which  this  last  plate  belonged  must, 
if  built  in  the  shorter  proportions,  have  measured  eighteen, 
and  if  in  the  longer,  twenty-three  feet  in  length.  The  two 
hyoid  plates  of  the  specimen  of  Holoptychius  in  the  British 
Museum  measure  but  four  and  a  half  inches  along  that  trans- 
verse line  in  which  the  Russian  Asterolepis  measures  two 
feet,  and  the  largest  Thurso  specimen  sixteen  inches  and  a  half. 
The  maxillary  bone  of  a  cod-fish  two  and  a  half  feet  from 
snout  to  tail  measures  three  inches  in  length.  One  of  the  Rus- 
sian maxillr.ry  bones  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Asmus 
measures  in  "ength  twenty-eight  inches.     And  that  space  cir- 


ITS   BULK  AND   ORGANIZATION.  127 

Fig.  46. 


HTOID  PLATE  OP  RUSSIAN  ASTEBOLEPIS. 

(One  twelfth  the  natural  size,  linear.) 

c  jmscribed  by  the  sweep  of  the  lower  jaw  which  it  took,  m 
the  Rjssian  specimen,  a  hyoid  plate  twenty-four  inches  in 
breadth  to  fill,  could  be  filled  in  the  two-and-a-half-feet  cod 
by  a  plate  whose  breadth  equalled  but  an  inch  and  a  half. 
Thus,  in  the  not  unimportant  circumstance  of  size,  the  most 
ancient  Ganoids  yet  known,  instead  of  taking  their  places, 
agreeably  to  the  demands  of  the  development  hypothesis, 
among  the  sprats,  sticklebacks,  and  minnows  of  their  class, 
took  their  place  among  its  huge  basking  sharks,  gigantic  stur- 
geons, and  bulky  sword-fishes.  They  were  giants,  not  dwarfs. 
But  what  of  their  organization  ?  Were  they  fishes  low  or 
high  in  the  scale  >  On  this  head  we  can,  of  course,  determine 
merely  by  the  analogies  which  their  structure  exhibits  to 
that  of  fishes  of  the  existing  period  ;  and  these  point  in  three 
several  directions  ;  —  in  two  of  the  number,  directly  on  genera 
of  the  h!gh  Ganoid  order  ;  and  in  the  third,  on  the  still  higher 
Placoidsand  Enaliosaurs.  No  trace  of  vertebra)  has  yet  been 
found;  and  so  we  infer  —  lodging,  however,  a  precautionary 
Drotest,  as  the  evidence  is  purely  negative,  and  therefore   in 


128  THE   ASTEROLEPIS  : 

some  degree  inconclusive  —  that  the  vertebral  column  of  the 
Asterolepis  was,  like  that  of  the  sturgeon,  cartilaginous. 
Respecting  its  external  covering,  we  positively  know,  as  has 
been  already  shown,  that,  like  the Lepidosteus  of  America  and 
the  Polypterus  of  the  Nile,  it  was  composed  of  strong  plates 
and  scales  of  solid  bone  ;  and,  regarding  its  dentition,  that,  as 
in  these  last  genera,  and  even  more  decidedly  than  in  these, 
it  was  of  the  mixed  ichthyic-reptilian  character,  —  an  outer 
row  of  thickly-set  fish-teeth  being  backed  by  an  inner  row  of 
thinly-set  reptile-teeth.  And  its  form  of  coprolite  indicates 
the  spiral  disposition  of  intestine  common  to  the  Rays  and 
Sharks  of  the  existing  period,  and  of  the  Ichthyosauri  of  the 
Secondary  ages.  Instead  of  being,  as  the  development  hypo- 
thesis would  require,  a  fish  low  in  its  organization,  it  seems  to 
have  ranged  on  the  level  of  the  highest  ichthyic-reptilian 
families  ever  called  into  existence.  Had  an  intelligent  being, 
ignorant  of  what  was  going  on  upon  earth  during  the  week 
of  creation,  visited  Eden  on  the  morning  of  the  sixth  day,  he 
would  have  found  in  it  many  of  the  inferior  animals,  but  no 
trace  of  man.  Had  he  returned  again  in  the  evening,  he 
would  have  seen,  installed  in  the  office  of  keepers  of  the 
garden,  and  ruling  with  no  tyrant  sway  as  the  humble 
monarchs  of  its  brute  inhabitants,  two  mature  human  crea- 
tures, perfect  in  their  organization,  and  arrived  at  the  full 
stature  of  their  race.  The  entire  evidence  regarding  them,  in 
the  absence  of  all  such  information  as  that  imparted  to  Adam 
by  Milton's  angel,  would  amount  simply  to  this,  that  in  the 
morning  man  was  not,  and  that  in  the  evening  he  tons.  There, 
of  course,  could  not  exist,  in  the  circumstances,  a  single  ap- 
pearance to  sanction  the  belief  that  the  two  human  creatures 
whom  he  saw  walking  together  among  the  trees  at  sunset  had 
been  "  developed  from  infusorial  points,"  not  created  mature. 


.rs   BULK   AND   ORGANIZATION.  129 

The  evideno3  would,  on  the  contrary,  lie  all  the  other  way. 
And  in  no  degree  does  the  geologic  testimony  respecting  the 
earliest  Ganoids  differ  from  what,  in  the  supposed  case,  would 
be  the  testimony  of  Eden  regarding  the  earliest  men.  Up  to 
a  certain  point  in  the  geologic  scale  we  find  that  the  Ganoids 
aire  not ;  and  when  they  at  length  make  their  appearance 
upon  the  stage,  they  enter  large  in  their  stature  and  high  in 
their  organization. 


130  FISHES    OF    THE    SILURIAN    EOCKS  : 


FISHES  OF  THE  SILURIAN  EOCKS  —  UPPER  AND  LOWER. 

THEIR    RECENT    HISTORY,  ORDER,  AND    SIZE. 


But  the  system  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  represents  the 
second,  not  the  Jirst,  great  period  of  the  world's  history. 
There  was  a  preceding  period  at  least  equally  extended,  per- 
haps greatly  more  so,  represented  by  the  Upper  and  Lower 
Silurian  formations.  And  what  is  the  testimony  of  this  morn- 
ing period  of  organic  existence,  in  which,  so  far  as  can  yet 
be  shown,  vitality,  in  the  planet  which  man  inhabits,  and  of 
whose  history  or  productions  he  knows  any  thing,  was  first  as- 
sociated with  matter  ?  May  not  the  development  hypothesis 
find  a  standing  in  the  system  representative  of  this  earliest 
age  of  creation,  which  it  fails  to  find  in  the  system  of  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone  ? 

It  has  been  confidently  asserted,  not  merely  that  it  may, 
but  that  it  does.  Ever  since  the  publication,  in  1839,  of  Sir 
Roderick  Murchison's  great  work  on  the  Silurian  System,  it 
had  been  known  that  the  remains  of  fishes  occur  in  a  bed  of 
the  "  Ludlow  Rock,"  —  one  of  the  most  modern  deposits  of 
the  Upper  Silurian  division ;  and  subsequent  discoveries, 
bcth  in  England  and  America,  had  shown  that  even  the  base 
of  this  division   has    its  ichthyic  organisms.     But  for   year 


TTPPEE   AND   LOWER.  131 

after  year,  the  lower  half  of  the  system,  —  a  division  more 
than  three  thousand  feet  in  thickness, —  had  failed,  tliougb 
there  were  hands  and  eyes  busy  among  its  deposits,  to  yield 
any  vertebrate  remains.  During  the  earlier  half  of  the  first 
great  period  of  organic  existence,  though  the  polyparia,  ra 
diata,  articulata,  and  mollusca,  existed,  as  their  remains  tes. 
tified,  by  myriads,  fish  had,  it  was  held,  not  yet  entered  upon 
the  scene  ;  and  the  assertors  of  the  development  theory 
founded  largely  on  the  presumed  fact  of  their  absence.  *  II 
is  still  customary,"  says  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  of  Crea- 
tion," in  his  volume  of  "  Explanations,"  "  to  speak  of  the 
earliest  fauna  as  one  of  an  elevated  kind.  When  rigidly 
examined,  it  is  not  found  to  be  so.  In  the  first  place,  it 
CONTAINS  NO  FISH.  There  were  seas  supporting  crustacean 
and  molluscan  life,  but  utterly  devoid  of  a  class  of  tenants  who 
seem  able  to  live  in  every  example  of  that  element  which  supports 
meaner  creatures.  This  single  fact,  that  only  invertebrated 
animals  now  lived,  is  surely  in  itself  a  strong  proof  that,  in 
the  course  of  nature,  time  was  necessary  for  the  creation  of 
the  superior  creatures.  And  if  so,  it  undoubtedly  is  a  power- 
ful evidence  of  such  a  theory  of  development  as  that  which 
I  have  presented.  If  not,  let  me  hear  an  equally  plausible 
reason  for  the  great  and  amazing  fact,  that  seas  were  for 
numberless  ages  destitute  of  fish.  I  fix  my  opponents  down 
to  the  consideration  of  this  fact,  so  that  no  diversion  respect- 
ing high  molluscs  shall  avail  them."  And  how  is  this  bold 
challenge  to  be  met  ? 

Most  directly,  and  after  a  fashion  that  at  once  discomfits 
the  challenger. 

It  might  be  rationally  enough  argued  in  the  case,  that  the 
author  of  the  "  Vestiges "  was  building  greatly  more  on  a 
piece  of  purely  negative  evidence,  —  the  presumed  absence 


132  FISHES    OF    THE    SILURIAN    ROCKS  : 

of  fish  from  the  Lower  Silurian  formations,  —  than  purely  neg- 
ative evidence  is,  from  its  nature  as  such,  suited  to  bear  ;  that 
only  a  very  few  years  had  passed  since  it  was  known  that  ver- 
tebrate remains  occurred  in  the  Upper  Silurian,  and  only  a  feAV 
more  since  they  had  been  detected  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  ; 
nay,  that  within  the  present  century  their  frequent  occur- 
rence in  even  the  Coal  Measures  was  scarce  suspected  ;  and 
that,  as  his  argument,  had  it  been  founded  twelve  years  ago 
on  the  supposed  absence  of  fishes  from  the  Upper  Silurian, 
or  twenty  years  ago  on  the  supposed  absence  of  fishes  from 
the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  would  have  been  quite  as  plausible 
in  reference  to  its  negative  data  then  as  in  reference  to  its 
negative  data  now,  so  it  might  now  be  quite  as  erroneous  as  it 
assuredly  would  have  been  then.  Or  it  might  be  urged,  that 
the  fact  of  the  absence  of  fish  from  the  Lower  Silurians,  ev6n 
were  it  really  a  fact,  would  be  in  no  degree  less  reconcilable 
with  the  theory  of  creation  by  direct  act,  than  with  the  hypoth- 
esis of  gradual  development.  The  fact  that  Adam  did  not 
exist  during  the  first,  second,  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  days  of 
the  introductory  week  of  Scripture  narrative,  furnishes  no 
argument  whatever  against  the  fact  of  his  creation  on  the 
sixth  day.  And  the  remark  would  of  course  equally  apply  to 
the  non-existence  of  fishes  during  the  Lower  Silurian  period, 
had  they  been  really  non-existent  at  the  time,  and  to  their 
sudden  appearance  in  that  of  the  Upper.  But  the  objec- 
tion admits  of  a  greatly  more  conclusive  answer.  "  I  fix  my 
opponents  down,"  says  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges,"  "  to 
the  consideration  of  this  fact,"  i.  e.  that  of  the  absence  of 
fishes  from  the  earliest  fossiliferous  formations.  And  I,  in 
turn,  fix  you  down,  I  reply,  to  the  consideration  of  the 
antagonist  fact,  not  negative,  but  positive,  and  now,  in  the 
course  of  geological  discovery,  fully  established,  that  fishes 


TTPPER   AND   LOWER.  133 

were  not  absent  from  the  earliest  fossiliferous  formations 
From  none  of  the  great  geological  formations  were  fishes  ab- 
sent,—  not  even  from  the  formations  of  the  Cambrian  divis- 
ion. "  The  Lower  Silurian,"  says  Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  in 
a  communication  with  which,  in  1847,  he  honored  the  writer 
of  these  chapters,  "  is  no  longer  to  be  viewed  as  an  inverte- 
brate period ;  for  the  Onchus  (species  not  yet  decided)  has 
been  found  in  the  Llandeilo  Flags  and  in  the  Lower  Silurian 
rocks  of  Bala.  In  one  respect  I  am  gratified  by  the  discovery  ; 
for  the  form  is  so  very  like  that  of  the  Onchus  MurcMsoni  of 
the  Upper  Ludlow  rock,  that  it  is  clear  the  Silurian  system  is 
one  great  natural-history  series,  as  is  proved,  indeed,  by  all  its 
other  organic  remains."  It  may  be  mentioned  further,  in  ad- 
dition to  this  interesting  statement,  that  the  Bala  spine  was 
detected  in  its  calcareous  matrix  by  the  geologists  of  the  Gov- 
ernment Survey,  and  described  to  Sir  Roderick  as  that  of  an 
Onchus,  by  a  very  competent  authority  in  such  matters,  — 
Professor  Edward  Forbes ;  and  that  the  annunciation  of  the 
existence  of  spines  of  fishes  in  the  Llandeilo  Flags  we  owe  to 
one  of  the  most  cautious  and  practised  geologists  of  the  pres- 
ent age,  —  Professor  Sedgwick  of  Cambridge. 

So  much  for  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  vertebrata  in  the 
Lower  Silurian  formations,  and  the  argument  founded  on  their 
presumed  absence.  Let  me  now  refer  —  their  presence  being 
determined  —  to  the  tests  of  size  and  organization.  Were 
these  Silurian  fishes  of  a  bulk  so- inconsiderable  as  in  any  de- 
gree to  sanction  the  belief  that  they  had  been  developed  shortly 
before  from  microscopic  points  ?  Or  were  they  of  a  structure 
so  low  as  to  render  it  probable  that  their  development  was  at 
the  time  incomplete  ?  Were  they,  in  other  words,  the  embryos 
and  foetuses  of  their  class  1  or  did  they,  on  the  contrary,  rank 
with  the  higher  and  larger  fishes  of  the  present  time  ? 
12 


134  FISHES    OF   THE    SILURIAN    ROCKS  : 

It  is  of  importance  that  not  only  the  direct  leaving^  but 
also  the  actual  amount,  of  the  evidence  in  this  case,  should  be 
fairly  stated.  So  far  as  it  extends,  the  testimony  is  clear ; 
but  it  does  not  extend  far.  All  the  vertebrate  remains 
yet  detected  in  the  Silurian  System,  if  we  except  the  de- 
bris of  the  Upper  Ludlow  bone-bed,  might  be  sent  through 
the  Post-Office  in  a  box  scarcely  twice  the  size  of  a  copy 
of  the  "  Vestiges."  The  naturalist  of  an  exploring  party, 
who,  in  crossing  some  unknown  lake,  had  looked  down 
over  the  side  of  his  canoe,  and  seen  a  few  fish  gliding 
through  the  obscure  depths  of  the  water,  would  be  but 
indifferently  qualified,  from  what  he  had  witnessed,  to  write 
a  history  of  all  its  fish.  Nor,  were  the  some  six  or  eight 
individuals  of  which  he  had  caught  a  glimpse  to  be  of 
small  size,  would  it  be  legitimate  for  him  to  infer  that  only 
small-sized  fish  lived  in  the  lake  ;  though,  were  there  to  be 
some  two  or  three  large  ones  among  them,  he  might  safely 
affirm  the  contrary.  Now,  the  evidence  regarding  the  fisherj 
of  the  Silurian  formation  very  much  resembles  what  that 
of  the  naturalist  would  be,  in  the  supposed  case,  regarding 
the  fishes  of  the  unexplored  lake  ;  with,  however,  this  dif- 
ference, that  as  the  deposits  of  the  ancient  system  in  which 
they  occur  have  been  examined  for  years  in  various. parts  of 
the  world,  and  all  its  characteristic  organisms,  save  the 
ichthyic  ones,  found  in  great  abundance  and  fine  keeping, 
we  may  conclude  that  the  fish  of  the  period  were  compara- 
tively few.  The  palaeontologist,  so  far  as  the  question  of 
number  is  involved,  is  in  the  circumstances,  not  of  the  natu- 
ralist who  has  only  once  crossed  the  unknown  lake,  but  of 
the  angler  who,  day  after  day,  casts  his  line  into  some  inknd 
sea  abounding  in  shell-fish  and  Crustacea,  and,  after  the  lapse 
of  months,  can  scarce  detect  a  nibble,  and,  after  the  lapse  of 


gPPER   AND   LOWEK.  135 

years,  can  reckon  up  all  the  fish  which  he  has  caught  as  con- 
siderably under  a  score.  The  existence  of  this  great  division 
of  the  animal  kingdom,  like  that  of  the  earlier  reptiles  during 
the  Carboniferous  period,  did  not  form  a  prominent  char- 
acteristic of  those  ages  of  the  earth's  history  in  which  they 
began  to  be. 

The  earliest  discovered  vertebral  remains  of  the  system  — 
those  of  the  Upper  Ludlow  rock  —  were  found  in  digging  the 
foundations  of  a  house  at  Ludford,  on  the  confines  of  Shrop- 
shire, and  submitted,  in  1838,  by  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  to 
Agassiz,  through  the  late  Dr.  Malcolmson  of  Madras.  T 
used  at  the  time  to  correspond  on  geological  subjects  with 
Dr.  Malcolmson,  —  an  accomplished  geologist  and  a  good 
man,  too  early  lost  to  science  and  his  friends,  —  and  still  re- 
member the  interest  which  attached  on  this  occasion  to  his 
communication  bearing  the  Paris  post-mark,  from  which  I 
learned  for  the  first  time  that  there  existed  ichthyic  fragments 
greatly  older  than  even  the  ichthyolites  of  the  Lower  Old 
Red  Sandstone,  and  which  made  me  acquainted  with  Agas- 
siz's  earliest  formed  decision  regarding  them.  Though  ex- 
isting in  an  exceedingly  fragmentary  condition, — for  the 
materials  of  the  thin  dark-colored  layer  in  which  they  had 
lain  seemed  as  if  they  had  been  triturated  in  a  mortar, — 
the  ichthyologist  succeeded  in  erecting  them  into  six  genera  ; 
though  it  may  be  very  possible,  —  as  some  of  these  were 
formed  for  the  reception  of  detached  spines,  and  others  for 
the  reception  of  detached  teeth,  —  that,  as  in  the  case  of 
Dipterus  and  Asterolepis,  the  fragments  of  but  a  single 
genus  may  have  been  multiplied  into  two  genera  or  more 
And  minute  scale-like  markings,  which  mingled  with  the  gen- 
eral mass,  and  were  at  first  regarded  as  the  impressions  of 
real  scales,  have  been  since  recognized  as  of  the  same  char 


136  FISHES    OF   THE    SILURIAN    ROCKS  : 

rtcter  with  the  scale-like  markings  of  the  Seraphim  of  Forfar 
shire,  a  huge  crustacean.  Even  admitting,  however,  that  a 
set  of  teeth  and  spines,  with  perhaps  the  shagreen  points 
represented  in  page  54,  fig.  2,  b,  in  addition,  may  have  all 
belonged  to  but  a  single  species  of  fish,  there  seem  to  be  ma- 
terials enough,  among  the  remains  found,  for  the  erection  of 
two  species  more.  And  we  have  evidence  that  at  least  two 
of  the  three  kinds  were  fishes  of  the  Placoid  order,  ( Onclius 
Murchisoni  and  Onchus  tenuistriatus,)  and — as  the  sup- 
posed scales  must  be  given  up  —  no  good  evidence  that  the 
other  kind  was  not.  The  ichthyic  remains  of  the  Silurian 
System  next  discovered  were  first  introduced  to  the  notice  of 
geologists  by  Professor  Phillips,  at  the  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  in  1842.*  They  occurred,  he  stated,  in  a  quarry 
near  Hales  End,  at  the  base  of  the  Upper  Ludlow  rock,  in 


*  "Mr.  Pliillips  proceeded  to  describe  some  remains  of  a  smaU 
fish,  resembling  the  Cheiracanthtis  of  the  Old  Bed  Sandstone,  scales 
and  spines  of  -which  he  had  found  in  a  quarry  at  Hales  End,  on 
the  western  side  of  the  Malvems.  The  section  presented  beds  of 
the  Old  Red  Sandstone  inclined  to  the  west ;  beneath  these  were 
arenaceous  beds  of  a  lighter  color,  forming  the  junction  with  Silurian 
shales  ;  these,  again,  passing  on  to  calcareous  beds  in  the  lower  part 
of  the  quarry,  containing  the  corals  and  shells  of  the  Aymestry 
Limestone,  of  their  agreement  with  which  stronger  evidence  might 
be  obtained  elsewhere.  He  had  found  none  of  these  scales  in 
the  junction  beds  or  in  the  Upper  Ludlow  Shales  ;  but  about  sixty 
or  one  hundred  feet  lower,  just  above  the  Aymestry  Limestone,  his 
attention  had  been  attracted  to  discolored  spots  on  the  surface  of  the 
beds,  -which,  upon  microscopic  examination,  proved  to  be  the  minute 
scales  and  spines  before  mentioned.  These  remains  -were  only 
apparent  on  the  surface,  -whilst  the  '  fish-bed '  of  the  Upper  Lud- 
low rock,  as  i*;  usually  occurred,  was  an  inch  thick,  consisting  of  in- 
numerable small  teeth  and  spines."  —  Report,  in  "  Athenaeum  "  for 
1842,  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Twelfth  Meeting  of  British  Associationt 
{^Manchestet  ) 


UPPER   AND   LOWER.  137 

mediately  over  the  Aymestry  Limestone,  and  were  so  ex- 
ceedingly diminutive,  that  they  appeared  to  the  naked  eye 
as  mere  discolored  spots  ;  but  resolved  under  the  micro- 
scope mto  scattered  groupes  of  minute  spines,  like  those  of 
the  Cheir acanthus^  with  what  seemed  to  be  still  more  minute 
scales,  or,  perhaps,  — what  in  such  circumstances  could  scarce 
be  distinguished  from  scales,  —  shagreen  points  of  the  scale- 
like type.  The  next  ichthyic  organism  detected  in  the  Silu- 
rian rocks  occurred  in  the  Wenlock  Limestone,  a  consider- 
ably lower  and  older  deposit,  and  was  first  described  in  the 
"  Edinburgh  Review "  for  1845  by  a  vigorous  writer  and 
masterly  geologist,  (generally  understood  to  be  Professor 
Sedgwick  of  Cambridge,)  as  "  a  characteristic  portion  of  a 
fish  undoubtedly  belonging  to  the  Cestraciont  family  of  the 
Placoid  order."  In  the  "  American  Journal  of  Science  "  for 
1846,  Professor  Silliman  figured,  from  a  work  of  the  States' 
Surveyors,  the  defensive  spine  of  a  Placoid  found  in  the 
Onondago  Limestone  of  New  York, — ^  a  rock  which  occurs 
near  the  base  of  the  Upper  Silurian  System,  as  developed  in 
the  western  world  ;  *  and  in  the  same  passage  he  made  ref- 
erence to  a  mutilated  spine  detected  in  a  still  lower  American 
deposit,  —  the  Oriskany  Sandstone.  In  the  Geological 
Journal  for  1847,  it  was  announced  by  Professor  Sedgwick, 


*  "This  is  the  lowest  position"  (that  of  the  Onondago  Lime- 
stone) "  in  the  State  of  New  York  in  which  any  remains  have 
been  found  higher  in  the  scale  of  organized  beings  than  Crustacea, 
with  the  exception  of  an  imperfectly  preserved  fish-bone  discovered 
by  Hall  in  the  Oriskany  Sandstone.  That  specimen,  together  with 
the  defensive  fish-bone  found  in  this  part  of  the  New  York  system, 
furnishes  evidences  of  the  existence  of  animals  belonging  to  the 
class  vertebrata  during  the  deposition  of  the  middle  part  of  the 
protozoic  strata."  —  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts  for  1846, 
p.  63. 

12* 


138 


FISHES    OF   THE    SILURIAN   KOCKS  : 


g  - 


Upper 
Ludlow. 

1 

Aymestry 
Limestone. 

2 

Lower 
Ludlow. 

a 

"Wenlock 
Limestone. 

4 

Wenlock  Shale. 

Caradoc 
Sandstone,  &c. 

S 
6 

Llandeilo 
Flags,  &c. 

Plynlimmon 
Group. 

7 
a 

Bala 
Limestone. 

6 

finowdon 
Group. 

C 

Fish,  1838, 
(Murchison.) 

Fish,  1842, 
(Phillips.) 


Fish,  184.5, 
(Sedgwick.) 
Fish,  1846, 
(Silliman.) 

Fish,  1847. 
(Phillips.) 


Fish,  1847, 
(Sedgwick.) 


Fish,     1847, 
(Geologists  of 
Government 
Survey.) 


Fucoids. 


that  he  had  found  "  de- 
fences  of  Jishes  "  in  the 
Upper  Llandeilo  Flags, 
and  by  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison,  that  the  "  de- 
fence of  an  Onc/ti«"had 
been  detected  by  the 
geologists  of  the  Gov- 
ernment survey,  in  the 
Limestone  near  Bala. 
Sir  Roderick  referred  in 
the  same  number  to  the 
remains  of  a  fish  found 
by  Professor  Phillips  in 
the  Wenlock  Shale.  And 
such,  up  to  the  pres- 
ent time,  is  the  actual 
amount  of  the  evidence 
with  which  we  have  to 
deal,  and  the  dates  of 
its  piecemeal  production. 
Let  us  next  consider  the 
order  of  its  occurrence 
in  the  geologic  scale. 

The  better  marked 
sub-divisions  of  the  Si- 
lurian System,  as  de- 
scribed in  the  great 
work  specially  devoted 
to  it,  may  be  regarded  as 
seven  in  number.  An 
eighth   has   since  been 


UPPER  AND   LOWER.  139 

added,  by  the  transference  of  the  Tilestones  from  the  lower 
part  of  ihe  Old  Red  Sandstone  group,  to  the  upper  part  of  the 
Silurian  group  underneath ;  but  in  order  the  better  to  show 
how  ichthyiv:  discovery  has  in  its  slow  course  penetrated  into 
the  depths,  I  shall  retain  the  divisions  recognized  as  those  of 
the  system  when  that  course  began.  The  highest  or  most 
modern  Silurian  deposit,  then,  (No.  1  of  the  accompanying 
diagram,)  is  the  Upper  Ludlow  Rock ;  and  it  is  in  the  superior 
strata  of  this  division  that  the  bone-bed  discovered  in  1838 
occurs ;  while  the  exceedingly  minute  vertebrate  remains 
described  by  Professor  Phillips  in  1842  occur  in  its  base. 
The  division  next  in  the  descending  order  is  the  Aymestry 
Limestone,  (No.  2 ;)  the  next  (No.  3)  the  Lower  Ludlow 
rock ;  then  (No.  4)  the  Wenlock  or  Dudley  Limestone  occurs ; 
and  then,  last  and  oldest  deposit  of  the  Upper  Silurian  forma- 
tion, the  Wenlock  shale,  (No.  5.)  It  is  in  the  fourth,  or  Wen- 
lock  Limestone  division,  that  the  defensive  spine  described  in 
the  "  Edinburgh  Review "  for  1845  as  the  oldest  vertebrate 
organism  known  at  the  time,  was  found;*  while  the  verte- 
brate organism  found  by  Professor  Phillips  belongs  to  the  fifth, 
or  base  deposit  of  the  Upper  Silurian.  Further,  the  American 
spines  of  Onondago  and  Oriskany,  described  in  1846,  occurred 
in  rocks  deemed  contemporary  with  those  of  the  Wenlock 
division.  We  next  cross  the  line  which  separates  the  base  of 
the  Upper  from  the  top  of  the  Lower  Silurian  deposits,  and 
find  a  great  arenaceous  formation,  (No.  6,)  known  as  the 
Caradoc  Sandstones ;  while  the  Llandeilo  Flags,  (No.  7,)  the 
formation  upon  which  the  sandstones  rest,  compose,  according 
to  the  sections  of  Sir  Roderick,  published  in  1839,  the  lowest 


*  •«  The  shales  aUemating  with  the  Weiil>2k  Limestone."  {Edinburgh 


140  FISHES    OF   THE   SILURIAN   EOCKS  t 

deposit  of  the  Lower  Silurian  rocks.  And  it  is  in  the  upper 
part  of  this  lowest  member  of  the  system  that  the  ichthyic 
defences,  announced  in  1847  by  Professor  Sedgwick,  occur. 
Vertebrate  remains  have  now  been  detected  in  the  same 
relative  position  in  the  seventh  and  most  ancient  member  of  the 
system,  that  they  were  found  to  occupy  in  its^rst  and  most 
modern  member  ten  years  ago.  But  this  is  not  all.  Beneath 
the  Lower  Silurian  division  there  occur  vast  fossiliferous 
deposits,  to  which  the  name  "Cambrian  System"  was  given, 
merely  provisionally,  by  Sir  Roderick,  but  which  Professor 
Sedgwick  still  retains  as  representative  of  a  distinct  geologic 
period ;  and  it  is  in  these,  greatly  below  the  Lower  Silurian 
base  line,  as  drawn  in  1839,  that  the  Bala  Limestones 
occur.  The  Plynlimmon  rocks  (a)  —  a  series  of  conglom* 
erate,  grauwacke,  and  slate  beds,  several  thousand  yards  in 
thickness  —  intervene  between  the  Llandeilo  Flags  and  the 
Limestones  of  Bala,  (6.)  And,  of  consequence,  the  defensive 
spine  of  the  Onchus,  announced  in  1847  as  detected  in  these 
limestones  by  the  geologists  of  the  Government  Survey,  must 
have  formed  part  of  a  fish  that  perished  many  ages  ere  the 
oldest  of  the  Lower  Silurian  formations  began  to  be  de- 
posited. 

Let  us  now,  after  this  survey  of  both  the  amount  of  our 
materials,  and  the  order  and  time  of  their  occurrence,  pass  on 
to  the  question  of  size,  as  already  stated.  Did  the  ichthyic 
remains  of  the  Silurian  System,  hitherto  examined  and 
described,  belong  to  large  or  to  small  fishes  >  The  question 
cannot  be  altogether  so  conclusively  answered  as  in  the  case 
of  those  Ganoids  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  whose 
dermal  skeletons  indicate  their  original  dimensions  and  form, 
in  fishes  of  the  Placoid  order,  such  as  the  Sharks  and  Rays, 
Jie  dermal  skeleton  is  greatly  less  continuous  and  persistent 


UPPER   AND   LOWER.  141 

han  m  su  :vi  Ganoids  as  the  DipteriansandCcBlacanths;  and 
when  their  remains  occur  in  the  fossil  state,  we  can  reason,  in 
most  instances,  regarding  the  bulk  of  the  individuals  of  which 
they  formed  part,  merely  from  that  of  detached  teeth  or  spines, 
whose  proportion  to  the  entire  size  of  the  animals  that  bore 
them  cannot  be  strictly  determined.  We  can,  indeed,  do  little 
more  than  infer,  that  though  a  large  Placoid  may  have  been 
armed  with  but  small  spines  or  teeth,  a  small  Placoid  could 
not  have  borne  very  large  ones.  And  to  this  Placoid  order  all 
the  Silurian  fish,  from  the  Aymestry  Limestone  to  the  Cam- 
brian deposits  of  Bala  inclusive,  unequivocally  belong.  Nor, 
as  has  been  already  said,  is  there  sufficient  evidence  to  show 
that  any  of  the  ichthyic  remains  of  the  Upper  Ludlow  rocks 
do  not  belong  to  it.  It  is  peculiarly  the  order  of  the  system. 
The  Ludlow  bone-bed  contains  not  only  defensive  spines,  but 
also  teeth,  fragments  of  jaws,  and  shagreen  points ;  whereas, 
in  all  the  inferior  deposits  which  yield  any  trace  of  the  ver- 
tebrata,  the  remains  are  those  of  defensive  spines  exclusively. 
Let  us,  then,  take  the  defensive  spine  as  the  part  on  which  to 
found  our  comparison. 

One  of  the  best  marked  Placoids  of  the  Upper  Ludlow 
bone-bed  is  that  Onchus  Murchisoni  to  Avhich  the  distinguished 
geologist  whose  name  it  bears  refers,  in  his  communication, 
as  so  nearly  resembling  the  oldest  Placoid  yet  known,  —  that 
of  the  Bala  Limestone.  And  the  living  fishes  with  which  the 
Onchus  Murchisoni  must  be  compared,  says  Agassiz,  though 
"  the  affinity,"  he  adds,  "  may  be  rather  distant,"  are  those 
of  the  genera  "  Cestracion,  Centrina,  and  Spinax^  I  have 
placed  before  me  a  specimen  of  recent  Spinax^  of  a  species 
well  known  to  all  my  readers  on  the  sea-coast,  the  Spinax 
Acanthias,  or  common  dog-fish,  so  little  a  favorite  with  our 
fishermen.      It   measures  exactly  two  feet  three  inches  in 


142  FISHES    OF    THE    SILURIAN    ROCKS: 

length ;  ana  of  the  defensive  spines  of  its  two  dorsals,  — 
these  spear-liKO  thorns  on  the  creature's  back  immediately  in 
advance  of  the  fins,  which  so  frequently  wound  the  fisher's 
hand, —  the  anterior  and  smaller  measures,  from  base  to 
point,  an  inch  and  a  half,  and  the  posterior  and  larger,  two 
inches.  I  have  also  placed  before  me  a  specimen  of  Cesfra- 
cion  Phillippi,  (the  Port  Jackson  Shark,)  a  fish  now  recog- 
nized as  the  truest  existing  analogue  of  the  Silurian  Placoids. 
It  measures  twenty-two  three  fourth  inches  in  length,  and  is 
furnished,  like  Spinax,  with  two  dorsal  spines,  of  which  the 
anterior  and  larger  measures  from  base  to  point  one  one  half 
inch,  and  the  posterior  and  smaller,  one  one  fifth  inch.  But 
the  defensive  spine  of  the  Onchus  Murchisoni,  as  exhibited 
in  one  of  the  Ludlow  specimens,  measures,  though  mutilated 
at  both  ends,  three  inches  and  five  eighth  parts  in  length. 
Even  though  existing  but  as  a  fragment,  it  is  as  such  nearly 
twice  the  length  of  the  largest  spine  of  the  dog-fish,  unmuti- 
lated  and  entire,  and  considerably  more  than  twice  the  length 
of  the  largest  spine  of  the  Port  Jackson  Shark.  The  spines 
detected  by  Professor  Phillips,  in  an  inferior  stratum  of  the 
same  upper  deposit,  were,  as  has  been  shown,  of  microscopic 
minuteness ;  and  when  they  seemed  to  rest  on  the  extreme 
horizon  of  ichthyic  existence  as  the  most  ancient  remains  of 
their  kind,  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  "  availed  himself  of  the 
fact.  He  regarded  the  little  creatures  to  which  they  had 
belonged  as  the  foetal  embryos  of  their  class,  or — to  employ 
the  language  of  the  Edinburgh  Reviewer  —  as  "  the  tokens 
of  Nature's  first  and  half-abortive  efforts  to  make  fish  out  of 
the  lower  animals."  From  the  latter  editions  of  his  work, 
the  paragraph  to  which  the  Reviewer  refers  has,  I  find,  been 
expunged ;  frr  the  horizon  has  greatly  extended,  and  what 
seemed  to  be  its  line  of  extreme  distance  has  travelled  into  the 


TTPPER   AND   LOWER. 


143 


middle  of  the  prospect.  But  that  the  passage  she  aid  have 
at  all  existed  is  a  not  uninstructive  circumstance,  and  shows 
how  unsafe  it  is,  in  more  than  external  nature,  to  regard 
the  line  at  which,  for  the  time,  the  landscape  closes,  and 
heaven  and  earth  seem  to  meet,  as  ir  reality  the  world's  end. 
The  Wenlock  spine,  though  certainly  not  microscopic,  is,  I 
am  informed  hy  Sir  Philip  Egerton,of  but  small  size  ;  where- 
as the  contemporary  spine  of  the  Onondago  Limestone, 
though  comparatively  more  a  fragment  than  the  spine  of  the 
Upper  Ludlow  Onchus,  —  for  it  measures  only  three  inches  in 
length,  —  is  at  least  five  times  as  bulky  as  the  largest  spine  of 

Fig.  47. 


a.  Posterior  Spine  of  Spinax  AcaiUhias.    b.  Fragment  of  Onondago  Spine, 

(Natural  Size.) 

Spinax  Acanthias.  Representing  one  of  the  massier  fishes 
disporting  amid  the  some  four  or  five  small  ones,  of  which 
in  my  illustration,  the  naturalist  catches  a  glimpse  in  ford- 
ing the  unknown  lake,  it  at  least  serves  to  show  that  all  the 
Silurian  ichthyolites  must  not  be  described  as  small,  seeing 
that  not  only  might  many  of  its  undetected  fish  have  been 
large,  but  that  some  of  those  which  have  been  detected  were 
actually  so.     Another  American  spine,  of  nearly  the  same 


144  FISHES    OF   THE    SILURIAN   ROCKS  : 

formation, — for  it  occurs  in  a  limestone,  varying  from  twenty 
to  seventy  feet  in  thickness,  which  immediately  overlies  that 
of  the  Onondago  deposit,  though  still  more  fragmentary  than 
the  first,  for  its  length  is  only  two  three  eighth  inches, — 
maintains  throughout  a  nearly  equal  thickness,  —  a  circum- 
stance in  itself  indicative  of  considerable  size  ;  and  in  posi- 
tive bulk  it  almost  rivals  the  Onondago  one.  Of  the  Lower 
Silurian  and  Bala  fishes  no  descriptions  or  figures  have  yet 
appeared.  And  such,  up  to  the  present  time,  is  the  testi- 
mony derived  from  this  de[)artment  of  Geology,  so  far  as  I 
have  been  able  to  determine  it,  regarding  the  size  of  the  an- 
cient Silurian  vertebrata.  "  No  organism,"  says  Professor 
Oken,  "  is,  nor  ever  has  one  been,  created,  which  is  not  mi- 
croscopic." The  Professor's  pupils  and  abettors,  the  assert- 
ors  of  the  development  hypothesis,  appeal  to  the  geological 
evidence  as  altogether  on  their  side  in  the  case  ;  and  straight- 
way a  few  witnesses  enter  court.  But,  lo !  among  the  ex- 
pected dwarfs,  there  appear  individuals  of  more  than  the 
average  bulk  and  stature. 

Still,  however,  the  question  of  organization  remains.  Did 
these  ancient  Placoid  fishes  stand  high  or  low  in  the  scale  } 
According  to  the  poet,  "  What  can  we  reason  but  from  what 
we  know  ?  "  We  are  acquainted  with  the  Placoid  fishes  of 
the  present  time  ;  and  from  these  only,  taking  analogy  as  our 
guide,  can  we  form  any  judgment  regarding  the  rank  and 
standing  of  their  predecessors,  the  Placoids  of  the  geologic 
periods.  But  the  consideration  of  this  question,  as  it  is 
specially  one  on  which  the  later  assertors  of  the  develop- 
ment hypothesis  concentrate  themselves,  I  must,  to  secure  the 
space  necessary  for  its  discussion,  defer  till  my  next  chapter. 
Meanwhile,  I  am  conscious  I  owe  an  apology  to  the  reader  for 
what  he  must  deem  tedious  minuteness  of  description,  and  a 


UPPER   AND   LOWEB.  145 

too  prolix  amplitude  of  statement.  It  is  only  by  representing 
things  as  they  actually  are,  and  in  the  true  order  of  their 
occurrence,  that  the  effect  of  the  partially  selected  facts  and 
exaggerated  descriptions  of  the  Lamarckian  can  be  adequate- 
ly met.  True,  the  disadvantages  of  the  more  sober  mode  are 
unavoidably  great.  He  who  feels  himself  at  hberty  to  arrange 
his  collected  shells,  corals,  and  fish-bones,  into  artistically  de- 
signed figures,  and  to  select  only  the  pretty  ones,  will  be  of 
course  able  to  make  of  them  a  much  finer  show  than  he  who 
is  necessitated  to  represent  them  in  the  order  and  numerical 
proportions  in  which  they  occur  on  some  pebbly  beach  washed 
by  the  sea.  And  such  is  the  advantage,  in  a  literary  point  of 
view,  of  the  ingenious  theorist,  who,  in  making  figures  of  his 
geological  facts,  takes  no  more  of  them  than  suits  his  purpose, 
over  the  man  who  has  to  communicate  the  facts  as  he  finds 
them.  But  the  homelier  mode  is  the  true  one.  "  Could  we 
obtain,"  says  a  distinguished  metaphysician, "a  distinct  and  full 
history  of  all  that  has  passed  in  the  mind  of  a  child,  from  the 
beginning  of  life  and  sensation  till  it  grows  up  to  the  use  of 
reason,  —  how  its  infant  faculties  began  to  work,  and  how 
they  brought  forth  and  ripened  all  the  various  notions,  opin- 
ions, and  sentiments  which  we  find  in  ourselves  when  we 
come  to  be  capable  of  reflection,  —  this  would  be  a  treasure 
of  natural  history  which  would  probably  give  more  light  into 
the  human  faculties  than  all  the  systems  of  philosophers  about 
them  since  the  beginning  of  the  world.  But  it  is  in  vain,"  he 
adds,  "  to  wish  for  what  nature  has  not  put  within  the  reach 
of  our  power."  In  like  manner,  could  we  obtain,  it  may  be 
remarked,  a  full  and  distinct  account  of  a  single  class  of  the 
animal  kingdom,  from  its  first  appearance  till  the  present 
time,  "  this  would  be  a  treasure  of  natural  history  which  would 
cast  more  light "  on  the  origin  of  liv  .ng  existences,  and  the 
13 


146  FISHES    OF   THE    SILURIAN   ROCKS. 

true  economy  of  creation,  than  all  the  theories  of  all  the  phi- 
losophers "  since  the  beginning  of  the  world."  And  in  order 
to  approximate  to  such  a  history  as  nearly  as  possible,  —  and 
it  does  seem  possible  to  approximate  near  enough  to 
substantiate  the  true  readings  of  the  volume,  and  to  correct  the 
false  ones,  —  it  is  necessary  that  the  real  vestiges  of  crea- 
tion should  be  carefully  investigated,  and  their  order  of  sue 
cession  ascertained. 


HIGH   STANDING   OF   THE   PLACOIDS.  147 


HIGH  STANDING  OF  THE  PLACOIDS.  ~  OBJECTIONS 
CONSIDERED. 


We  have  seen  that  some  of  the  Silurian  Placoids  were  large 
of  size  :  the  question  still  remains,  Were  they  high  in  intel- 
ligence and  organization  ? 

The  Edinburgh  Reviewer,  in  contending  with  the  author  of 
the  "  Vestiges,"  replies  in  the  affirmative,  by  claiming  for 
them  the  first  place  among  fishes.  "  Taking  into  account," 
he  says,  "  the  brain  and  the  whole  nervous,  circulating,  and 
generative  systems,  they  stand  at  the  highest  point  of  a  nat- 
ural ascending  scale."  They  are  fishes,  he  again  remarks, 
that  rank  among  "  the  very  highest  types  of  their  class." 

"  The  fishes  of  this  early  age,  and  of  all  other  ages  pre- 
vious to  the  Chalk,"  says  his  antagonist,  in  reply,  "  are,  for 
the  most  part,  cartilaginous.  The  cartilaginous  fishes  — 
Chondropterygii  of  Cuvier  —  are  placed  by  that  naturalist  as 
a  second  series  in  his  descending  scale  ;  being,  however,  he 
says, '  in  some  measure  parallel  to  the  first.''  How  far  this  is 
different  from  their  being  the  highest  types  of  the  fish  class, 
need  not  be  largely  insisted  upon.  Linnaeus,  again,  was  so 
impressed  by  the  low  characters  of  many  of  this  order,  that 
he  actually  ranked  them  with  worms.  Some  of  tie  cartila- 
ginous fishes,  nevertheless,  have  certain  peculiar  features  of 
organization,  chiefly  connected  with  reproduction,  in  which 


148  OBJECTIONS 

they  excel  other  fish ;  but  such  features  are  partly  partaken 
of  by  families  in  inferior  sub-kingdoms,  showing  that  they 
cannot  truly  be  regarded  as  marks  of  grade  in  their  own 
class.  When  we  look  to  the  great  fundamental  characters, 
particularly  to  the  framework  for  the  attachment  of  the 
muscles,  what  do  we  find  ?  —  why,  that  of  these  Placoids,  — 
'the  highest  types  of  their  class,'  —  it  is  barely  possible  to 
establish  their  being  vertebrata  at  all,  the  back-bone  having 
generally  been  too  slight  for  preservation,  although  the  ver- 
tebral columns  of  later  fossil  fishes  are  as  entire  as  those 
of  any  other  animals.  In  many  of  them  traces  can  be  ob- 
served of  the  muscles  having  been  attached  to  the  external 
plates,  strikingly  indicating  their  low  grade  as  vertebrate 
animals.  The  Edinburgh  Reviewer  '  highest  types  of  their 
class  '  are  in  reality  a  separate  series  of  that  class,  generally 
inferior,  taking  the  leading  features  of  organization  of  struc- 
ture as  a  criterion,  but  when  details  of  organization  are  re- 
garded, stretching  farther,  both  downward  and  upward,  than 
the  other  series  ;  so  that,  looking  at  one  extremity,  we  are  as 
much  entitled  to  call  them  the  lowest,  as  the  Reviewer,  look- 
ing at  another  extremity,  is  to  call  them  the  '  highest  of 
their  class.'  Of  the  general  inferiority  there  can  be  no  room 
for  doubt.  Their  cartilaginous  structure  is,  in  the  first  place, 
analogous  to  the  embryonic  state  of  vertebrated  animals  in 
general.  The  maxillary  and  intermaxillary  bones  are  in 
them  rudimental.  Their  tails  are  finned  on  the  under  side 
only, —  an  admitted  feature  of  the  salmon  in  an  embryonic 
stage  ;  and  the  mouth  is  placed  on  the  under  side  of  the 
head,  —  also  a  mean  and  embryonic  feature  of  structure. 
These  characters  are  essential  and  important,  whatever  the 
Edinburgh  Reviewer  may  say  to  the  contrary ;  they  are  the 
characters  which,  above  all,  ^  am  chiefly  concerned  in  look- 


CONSIDERED.  149 

mg  to,  for  they  are  features  of  embryonic  progress,  and  em- 
bryonic progress  is  the  grand  key  to  the  theory  of  develop- 
ment." 

Such  is  the  ingenious  piece  of  special  pleading  which  this 
most  popular  of  the  Lamarckians  directs  against  the  standing 
and  organization  of  the  earlier  fishes.  Let  us  examine  it 
somewhat  in  detail,  and  see  whether  the  slight  admixture  of 
truth  which  it  contains  serves  to  do  aught  more  than  to  render 
current,  like  the  gilding  of  a  counterfeit  guinea  spread  over 
the  base  metal,  the  amount  of  error  which  lies  beneath.  I 
know  not  a  better  example  than  that  which  it  furnishes,  of 
the  entanglement  and  perplexity  which  the  meshes  of  an  arti- 
ficial classification,  when  converted,  in  argumentative  pro- 
cesses, into  symbols  and  abstractions,  are  sure  to  involve 
subjects  simple  enough  in  themselves. 

Fishes,  according  to  the  classification  of  a  preponderating 
majority  of  the  ichthyologists  that  have  flourished  from  the 
earliest  times  down  to  those  of  Agassiz,  have  been  divided 
into  two  great  series,  the  Ordinary  or  osseous,  and  the  Chon- 
dropterygii  or  cartilaginous.  And  these  two  divisions  of  the 
class,  instead  of  being  ranged  consecutively  in  a  continuous 
line,  the  one  in  advance  of  the  other,  have  been  ranged 
in  two  parallel  lines,  the  one  directly  abreast  of  the  other. 
There  is  this  further  peculiarity  in  the  arrangement,  that 
the  line  of  the  cartilaginous  series,  from  the  circumstance 
that  some  of  its  families  rise  higher  and  some  sink  lower 
in  the  scale  than  any  of  the  ordinary  fishes,  outflanks  the 
array  of  the  osseous  series  at  both  ends.  The  front  which 
it  presents  contains  fewer  genera  and  species  than  that  of 
the  osseous  division ;  but,  like  the  front  of  an  army  drawn 
out  in  single  file,  it  extends  along  a  greater  length  of  ground 
And  to  this  long-fronted  series  of  the  cartilaginous,  or,  ae 
13* 


150  OBJECTICNS 

cording  to  Cuvier,  chondropterygian  fishes,  thePIacoid  families 
of  Agassiz  belong,  —  among  the  rest,  the  Placoids  of  the  Silu- 
rian formations,  Upper  and  Lower.  But  though  all  the  Pla- 
coids of  this  latter  naturalist  be  cartilaginous  fishes,  all  carti- 
laginous fishes  are  not  Placoids.  The  SturionidcE  are  cartila- 
ginous, and  are,  as  such,  ranked  by  Cuvier  among  the  Chan- 
dropterygii,  whereas  Agassiz  places  them  in  his  Ganoid  order. 
Many  of  the  extinct  fishes,  too,  such  as  the  Acanthodei,  Dip- 
terid(B,  CephalaspidcR,  were,  as  we  have  seen,  cartilaginous 
in  their  internal  framework,  and  yet  true  Ganoids  notwith- 
standing. The  principle  of  Agassiz's  classification  wholly 
differs  from  that  of  Cuvier  and  the  older  ichthyologists  ;  for 
it  is  a  classification  founded,  not  on  the  character  of  the 
internal  but  on  that  of  the  cuticular  or  dermal  skeleton.  And 
while  to  the  geologist  it  possesses  great  and  obvious  advan- 
tages over  every  other,  —  for  of  the  earlier  fishes  very  little 
more  than  the  cuticular  skeleton  survives,  —  it  has  this  further 
recommendation  to  the  naturalist,  that,  (in  so  far  at  least  as 
its  author  has  been  true  to  his  own  principles,)  instead  of  anom- 
alously uniting  the  highest  and  lowest  specimens  of  their 
class,  —  the  fishes  that  most  nearly  approximate  to  the  reptiles 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  fishes  that  sink  furthest  towards  the 
worms  on  the  other,  —  it  gathers  into  cne  consistent  order  all 
the  individuals  of  the  higher  type,  distinguished  above  their 
fellows  by  their  development  of  brain,  the  extensive  range 
of  '.heir  instincts,  and  the  perfection  of  their  generative  sys- 
tems. Further,  the  history  of  animal  existences,  as  re- 
corded in  the  sedimentary  rocks  of  our  planet,  reads  a  recom- 
mendation of  this  scheme  of  classification  which  it  extends 
to  no  other.  We  find  that  in  the  progress  of  creation  the 
fishes  began  to  he  bygroupes  and  septs,  arranged  according  to 
the  prmciple   on   which   it  erects  its    orders.     The  Placoids 


CONSIDERED.  151 

came  first,  the  Ganoids  succeeded  them,  and  theCtenoids  and 
Cycloids  brought  up  the  rear.  The  march  has  been  marshalled 
according  to  an  appointed  programme,  the  order  of  whicn  it 
is  peculiarly  the  merit  of  Agassiz  to  have  ascertained. 

Now,  may  I  request  the  reader  to  mark,  in  the  first  place, 
that  what  we  have  specially  to  deal  with  at  the  present  stage 
of  the  argument  are  the  Placoid  fishes  of  the  Silurian  forma- 
tions, Upper  and  Lower.  May  I  ask  him  to  take  note,  in  the 
second,  that  the  long-fronted  chondropterygian  series  of 
Cuvier,  though  it  includes,  as  has  already  b^en  said,  the 
Placoid  order  of  Agassiz, — just  as  the  red-blooded  division 
of  animals  includes  the  bimana  and  quadrumana,  —  is  no 
more  to  be  regarded  as  identical  with  the  Placoids,  than  the 
red-blooded  animals  are  to  be  regarded  as  identical  with  the 
apes  or  with  the  human  family.  It  simply  includes  them  in 
the  character  of  one  of  the  three  great  divisions  into  which  it 
has  been  separated,  —  the  division  ranged,  if  I  may  so  express 
myself,  on  the  extreme  right  of  the  line  ;  its  middle  portion, 
or  main  body,  being  composed  of  the  Sturiones,  a  family  on 
the  general  level  of  the  osseous  fishes  ;  while,  ranged  on  the 
extreme  left,  we  find  the  low  division  of  the  Suctorii,  i.  e. 
Cyclostomi,  or  Lampreys.  But  with  the  middle  and  lower 
divisions  we  have  at  present  nothing  to  do ;  for  of  neiiher 
of  them,  whether  Sturiones  or  Suctorii,  does  the  Silurian 
System  exhibit  a  trace.  Further  be  it  remarked,  thai  the 
scheme  of  classification  which  gives  an  abstract  standing  to 
the  CJiondropterygii,  is  in  itself  merely  a  certain  perception 
of  resemblance  which  existed  in  certain  minds,  having  carti' 
lage  for  its  general  idea ;  just  as  another  certain  perception 
of  resemblance  in  oae  other  certain  mind  had  cuticular 
skeleton  for  its  general  idea,  and  as  yet  another  perception 
of  resemblance  in  yet  other  certain  minds  had  red  Hood  for 


152  OBJECTIONS 

its  general  idea.  As  shown  by  the  disparities  which  obtain 
among  the  section  which  the  scheme  serves  to  separate  from 
the  others,  it  no  more  determines  rank  or  standing  than  that 
grsatly  more  ancient  scheme  of  classification  into  "  ring- 
streaked  and  spotted,"  which  served  to  distinguish  the  flocks 
of  the  patriarch  Jacob  from  those  of  Laban  his  father-in-law, 
but  which  did  not  distinguish  goats  from  sheep,  nor  sheep  from 
cattle. 

The  effect  of  introducing,  after  this  manner,  generalizations 
made  altogether  irrespective  of  rank,  and  avowedly  without 
reference  to  it,  into  what  are  inherently  and  specifically  ques- 
tions of  rank,  admits  of  a  simple  illustration. 

Let  us  suppose  that  it  was  not  with  the  standing  of  the 
Silurian  Placoids  that  we  had  to  deal,  but  with  that  of  the 
mammals  of  the  recent  period,  including  the  quadrumana,  and 
even  the  bimana,  and  that  we  had  ventured  to  describe  them, 
in  the  words  of  the  Edinburgh  Reviewer,  as  "  the  very 
highest  types  of  their  class."  What  would  be  thought  of  the 
reasoner  who,  in  challenging  the  justice  of  the  estimate, 
would  argue  that  these  creatures,  men  as  well  as  monkeys, 
belonged  simply  to  that  division  of  red-blooded  animals  which 
includes,  with  the  bimana  and  quadrumana,  the  frog,  the  gud- 
geon, and  the  earthworm  ?  —  a  division,  he  might  add,  "which, 
when  details  of  organization  are  regarded,  stretches  farther, 
both  downward  and  upward,"  than  that  division  of  the  white- 
blooded  animals  to  which  the  crab,  the  spider,  the  cuttle-fish, 
and  the  dragon  fly  belong  ;  "  so  that,  looking  at  one  extremity, 
any  one  is  as  much  entitled  to  call  the  red-blooded  animals 
the  lowest  division,  as  any  other,  looking  at  another  ex- 
tremity, is  to  call  them  the  highest  division,  of  animals." 
What,  it  might  well  be  asked  in  reply,  has  the  earthworm, 
with  its  red  Uood,  to  do  in  a  question  respecting  the  place 


CONSIDERED.  153 

and  standing  of  the  bimana  ?  Or  what,  in  the  parallel  case, 
have  the  Suctorii  —  the  worms  of  Linnaeus  —  to  do  in  a 
question  respecting  the  place  and  standing  of  the  real 
Placoids  ?  True  it  is  that,  according  to  one  principle  of 
classification,  now  grown  somewhat  obsolete,  men  and  earth- 
worms are  equally  red-blooded  animals ;  true  it  is  that, 
according  to  another  principle  of  classification,  the  Placoids 
of  Agassiz  and  the  cartilaginous  worms  of  Linnaeus  are  equally 
Chondroplerygii.  The  bimana  and  the  earthworm  have  their 
red  blood  in  common  ;  the  glutinous  hag  and  the  true  Placoids 
have  as  certainly  their  internal  cartilage  in  common  ;  and 
if  the  fact  of  the  red  blood  of  the  worm  lowers  in  no  degree 
the  rank  of  the  bimana,  then,  on  the  same  principle,  the 
fact  of  the  internal  cartilage  of  the  glutinous  hag  cannot 
possibly  detract  from  the  standing  of  the  true  Placoid.  In 
both  cases  they  are  creatures  that  entirely  differ,  —  the  earth- 
worms from  the  bimana,  and  the  cartilaginous  worms  from 
the  Placoids ;  and  the  classification  which  tags  them  together, 
whether  it  be  that  of  Aristotle  or  that  of  Cuvier,  cannot 
be  converted  into  a  sort  of  minus  quantity,  of  force  enough 
to  detract  from  the  value  and  standing  of  the  bimana  in 
the  one  case,  or  of  the  true  Placoids  in  the  other.  It  is 
in  no  degree  derogatory  to  the  human  family  that  earth- 
worms possess  red  blood  ;  it  is  in  no  degree  derogatory  to 
the  true  Placoids  that  the  Suctorii  possess  cartilaginous 
skeletons. 

Let  the  reader  now  mark  the  use  which  has  been  made,  by 
the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges,"  of  the  name  and  authority  of 
Linnaeus.  "  Linnaeus,"  he  states,  "  was  so  impressed  by  the 
low  character  of  many  of  this  order,  (the  Chondropterygii,) 
that  he  actually  ranked  them  with  worms."  Now,  what  is  the 
fac*  here  ?     Simply  that  Linnaeus  had  no  such  general  order 


154  OBJECTIONS 

as  the  Chondropterygii  in  his  eye  at  all.  Though  chiefly 
remarkable  as  a  naturalist  for  the  artificialness  of  his  classifi- 
cations, his  estimate  of  the  cartilaginous  fishes  was  remarkable 

—  though  carried  too  far  in  its  extremes,  and  in  some  degree 
founded  in  error  —  for  an  opposite  quality.  It  was  an  estimate 
formed,  in  the  main,  on  a  natural  basis.  Instead  of  taking 
their  cartilaginous  skeleton  into  account,  he  looked  chiefly  at 
their  standing  as  animals ;  and,  struck  with  that  extent  of  front 
which  they  present,  and  with  both  their  superiority  on  the  ex- 
treme right,  and  their  inferiority  on  the  extreme  left,  to  the 
ordinary  fishes,  he  erected  them  into  two  separate  orders,  the 
one  lower  and  the  other  higher  than  the  members  of  the  osse- 
ous line.     And  so  far  was  he  from  regarding  the  true  Placoids 

—  those  Chondropterygii  which  to  an  internal  skeleton  of 
cartilage  add  external  plates,  points,  or  spines  of  bone  —  as 
low  in  the  scale,  that  he  actually  raised  them  above  fishes  alto- 
gether, by  erecting  them  into  an  order  of  reptiles,  —  the  order 
Amphibia  Nantes.  Surely,  if  the  name  of  Linnaeus  was  to  be 
introduced  into  this  controversy  at  all,  it  ought  to  have  been 
in  connection  with  this  special  fact ;  seeing  that  the  point  to 
be  determined  in  the  question  under  discussion  is  simply  the 
place  and  standing  of  that  very  order  which  the  naturalist 
rated  so  high,  —  not  the  place  and  standing  of  the  order  which 
he  degraded.  It  so  happens  that  there  is  one  of  the  Chon- 
dropterygii which,  so  far  from  being  a  true  Placoid,  does  net 
possess  a  single  osseous  plate,  point,  or  spine  :  it  is  a  worm- 
like creature,  without  eyes,  without  movable  jaws,  without 
vertebral  joints,  without  scales,  always  enveloped  in  slime, 
and  greatly  abhorred  by  our  Scotch  boatmen  of  the  Moray 
Frith,  who  hold  that  it  burrows,  like  the  grave-worm,  in  the 
decaying  bodies  of  the  dead.  And  this  creature,  "  the 
glutinous  hag,"  or,  according  to  north-country  fishermen,  the 


CONSIDEKED.  15? 

*'  ramper-eel,"  or  "  poison-ramper,"  was  regarded  by  Lin 
naeus  as  belonging,  not  to  the  class  of  fishes,  but  to  the 
Vermes.  Now,  this  is  the  special  fact  with  which,  in  thr 
development  controversy,  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  "  con 
nects  the  name  of  the  Swedish  naturalist !  All  the  fish  of 
the  Silurian  System  belonged  to  that  true  Placoid  order  which 
Linnaeus,  impressed  by  its  high  standing,  erected  mto  an 
order,  not  of  worms,  but  of  reptiles.  He  elevated  A,  th« 
true  Placoid,  while  he  degraded  B,  the  glutinous  hag.  But  i* 
was  necessary  to  the  argument  of  the  author  of  the  "  Ves- 
tiges "  that  the  earliest  existing  fish  should  be  represented  as 
fish  low  in  the  scale ;  and  so  he  has  cited  the  name  and 
authority  of  Linnaeus  in  its  bearing  against  the  glutinous  hag 
B,  as  if  it  had  borne  against  the  standing  of  the  true  Placoid 
A.  The  Patagonians  are  the  tallest  and  bulkiest  men  in  the 
world,  whereas  their  neighbors  the  Fuegians  are  a  slim  and 
diminutive  race.  And  if,  in  some  controversy  raised  regard- 
ing the  real  size  of  the  more  gigantic  tribe,  they  were  to  be 
described  as  the  "  very  tallest  types  of  their  class,"  any  state- 
ment in  reply,  to  the  effect  that  some  trustworthy  voyager 
had  examined  certain  races  of  the  extreme  south  of  America, 
and  had  found  that  they  were  both  short  and  thin,  would  be 
neither  relevant  in  its  facts  nor  legitimate  in  its  bearing.  But 
if  the  controversialist  who  thus  strove  to  strengthen  his  case 
by  the  voyager's  authority,  was  at  the  same  time  fuUj  aware 
that  the  voyager  had  seen  not  only  the  diminutive  Fuegians, 
but  also  the  gigantic  Patagonians,  and  that  he  had  described 
these  last  as  very  gigantic  indeed,  the  introduction  of  the 
statement  regarding  the  smaller  race,  when  he  wholly  sank 
the  statement  regarding  the  larger,  would  be  not  mere  y  very 
irrelevant  in  the  circumstances,  but  also  very  unfair.  Such, 
however,  is  the  style  of  statement  to  which  the  author  of  the 


156  PROGRESS 

"  Vestiges  "  has  (I  trust  inadvertently)  resorted  in  this  con- 
troversy. 

It  is  not  uninstructive  to  mark  how  slowly  and  gradually 
the  naturalists  have  been  groping  their  way  to  a  right  classifi 
cation  in  the  ichthyic  department  of  their  science,  and  how  it 
has  been  that  identical  perception  of  resemblance,  having 
cartilage  for  its  general  idea,  to  which  the  author  of  the 
"  Vestiges  "  attaches  so  much  importance,  that  has  served 
mainly  to  retard  their  progress.  Not  a  few  of  the  more  dis- 
tinguished among  their  number  deemed  it  too  important  a 
distinction  to  be  regarded  as  merely  secondary ;  and  so  long 
as  it  was  retained  as  a  primary  characteristic,  the  fishes  failed 
to  range  themselves  in  the  natural  order;  —  dissimilar  tribes 
were  brought  into  close  neighborhood,  while  tribes  nearly 
allied  were  widely  separated.  It  failed,  as  has  been  shown, 
to  influence  Linnaeus ;  and  though  he  no  doubt  pressed  his 
peculiar  views  too  far  when  he  degraded  the  glutinous  hag 
into  a  worm,  and  elevated  the  Sharks  and  Rays  into  reptiles, 
it  is  certainly  worthy  of  remark,  that,  in  the  scheme  of  class- 
ification which  is  now  regarded  as  the  most  natural,  —  that 
of  Professor  Muller,  modified  by  Professor  Owen,  —  the 
ichthyic  worms  of  the  Swede  are  placed  in  the  first  and 
lowest  order  of  fishes,  —  the  Dermopteri,  —  and  the  greater 
part  of  his  ichthyic  reptiles,  in  the  eleventh  and  highest, — 
the  riagiostovii.  Cuvier  yielded,  as  has  been  shown,  to  the 
idea  of  resemblance  founded  on  the  material  of  the  ichthyic 
framework,  and  so  ranged  his  fishes  into  two  parallel  lines. 
Professer  Oken,  after  first  enunciating  as  law  that  "  the  char- 
acteristic organ  of  fishes  is  the  osseous  system,"  confessed 
the  "  great  difficulty  "  which  attaches  to  the  question  of  skel- 
etal "  texture  or  substance,"  and  finally  gave  up  the  distinction 
founded  on  it  as  obstinately  irreducible  to  the  purposes  of  a 


OF   ICHTHYIC    CLASSIFICATION.  .   157 

natural  classification.  "  The  cartilaginous  fishes,"  he  says, "  ap- 
pear to  belong  to  each  other,  and  are  also  usually  arranged  to- 
gether ;  yet  amongst  them  we  find  those  species,  such  as  the 
Lampreys,  which  obviously  occupy  the  lowest  grade  of  all 
fishes,  while  the  Sharks  and  Rays  remind  us  of  the  Reptilia." 
And  so,  sinking  the  consideration  of  texture  altogether,  he 
placed  the  family  of  the  Lamprey,  including  the  glutinous  hag, 
at  the  bottom  of  the  scale,  and  the  Sharks  and  Rays  at  the  top. 
Agassiz's  system,  peculiarly  his  own,  has  had  the  rare  merit, 
as  I  have  shown,  of  furnishing  a  key  to  the  history  of  the 
fish  in  its  several  dynasties,  which  we  may  in  vain  seek  in 
any  other.  His  divisions, —  if,  retaining  his  strongly-marked 
Placoidsand  Ganoids,  as  orders  stamped  in  the  mint  of  nature, 
we  throw  his  perhaps  less  obviously  divisible  Cteuoids  and  Cy- 
cloids into  one  order,  —  the  corneous  or  horn-covered,  —  are 
scarcely  less  representative  of  periods  than  those  great  classes 
of  the  vertebrata,  mammals,  birds,  reptiles,  and  fishes,  which 
we  find  not  less  regularly  ranged  in  their  order  of  succession 
in  the  geologic  record  than  in  the  "  Animal  Kingdom  "  of 
Cuvier, —  ji  shrewd  corroboration,  in  both  cases,  I  am  dis- 
posed to  th/  ik,  of  the  rectitude  of  the  arrangement.  What 
seems  to  be  the  special  defect  of  his  system  is,  that  having 
erected  his  four  orders,  and  then  finding  a  certain  number  of 
residuary  families  that,  on  his  principle  of  cuticular  character, 
stubbornly  refused  to  fall  into  any  determinate  place,  he  dis- 
tributed them  among  the  others,  with  reference  chiefly  to  the 
totally  distinct  principle  of  Cuvier.  Thus  the  Suctorii,  soft, 
smooth,  slimy-skinned  fishes,  that  do  not  possess  a  single 
placoid  character,  and  are  not  true  Placoids,  he  has  yet  placed 
in  his  Placoid  order,  influenced,  apparently,  by  the  "  per- 
ception of  resemblance  that  has  cartilage  for  its  central 
idea ; "  and  the  effect  has  been  a  massing  into  one  anomalous 
14 


158  PROGRESS 

and  entangled  group  the  fishes  of  the  first  period  of  geologic 
history,  with  fishes  of  which  we  do  not  find  a  trace  save  in 
the  existing  scene  of  things,  and  of  the  highest  families  of 
their  class  with  families  that  occupy  the  lowest  place.  But 
wo  live  in  an  age  in  which  even  the  benefactors  of  the  world 
of  mind  cannot  make  false  steps  with  impunity  ;  and  so, 
while  Agassiz's  three  ichthyic  orders  will  continue  to  bo 
recognized  by  the  palajontologist  as  the  orders  of  three  great 
geologic  periods,  the  Suctorii  have  already  been  struck  from 
off  his  higher  fishes  by  the  classification  of  Muller  and  Owen, 
and  carried  to  that  lowest  point  in  the  scale  (indicated  by 
Linnaeus  and  Oken)  which  their  inferior  standing  renders  so 
obviously  the  natural  one.  Some  of  my  readers  may  per- 
haps remember  how  finely  Bacon,  in  his  "  Wisdom  of  the 
Ancients,"  interprets  the  old  mythologic  story  of  Prometheus. 
Prometheus,  says  the  philosopher,  had  conferred  inestimable 
favors  on  men,  by  moulding  their  forms  into  shape,  and  bring- 
ing them  fire  from  heaven  ;  and  yet  they  complained  of  him 
and  his  teachings  to  Jupiter.  And  the  god,  instead  of  cen- 
suring their  ingratitude,  was  pleased  with  the  complaint,  and 
rewarded  them  with  gifts.  In  putting  nature  to  the  question, 
it  is  eminently  wholesome  to  be  doubting,  cross-examining, 
complaining ;  ever  demanding  of  our  masters  and  benefactors 
the  philosophers,  that  they  should  reign  over  us,  not  arbitra- 
rily and  despotically, 

"  Like  the  old  kings,  with,  high  exacting  looks, 
Sceptred  and  globed," 

but  like  our  modern  constitutional  monarchs,  who  govern  by 
law  ;  and,  further,  that  an  appeal  from  their  decisions  on  all 
subjects  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Nature  should  for  ever 
lie  open  to  Nature  herself.     The  seeming  ingratitude  of  such 


OF    ICHTHYIC    CLASSIFICATION.  159 

a  course,  if  the  "  complaints  "  be  made  in  a  right  spirit  and 
on  proper  grounds,  Jupiter  always  rewards  with  gifts. 

Let  us  now  see  for  ourselves,  in  this  spirit,  whether  there 
may  not  be  something  absolutely  derogatory,  in  the  existence 
of  a  cartilaginous  skeleton,  to  the  creatures  possessing  it ;  or 
whether  a  deficit  of  internal  bone  may  not  be  greatly  more 
than  neutralized,  as  it  assuredly  must  have  been  in  the  view 
of  Linnaeus,  MuUer,  and  Owen,  by  a  larger  than  ordinary 
share  of  a  vastly  more  important  substance. 


160  RANK   DEPENDENT 


THE  PLACOID  BRAIN. 

EMBRYONIC    CHAEACTERISTICS     NOT     NECESSARILY    OF    A    LOW 
ORDER. 


That  special  substance,  according  to  whose  mass  and  de- 
gree of  development  all  the  creatures  of  this  world  take  rank 
in  the  scale  of  creation,  is  not  hone,  but  brain.  Were  ani- 
mals to  be  ranged  according  to  the  solidity  of  their  bones,  the 
class  of  birds  would  be  assigned  the  first  place  ;  the  family 
of  the  Felid(B,  including  the  tiger  and  lion,  the  second  ;  and 
the  other  terrestrial  carnivora  the  third.  Man  and  the  herbiv- 
orous animals,  though  tolerably  low  in  the  scale,  would  be 
in  advance  of  at  least  the  reptiles.  Most' of  these,  however, 
would  take  precedence  of  the  sagacious  Delphinidce ;  the 
osseous  fishes  would  come  next  in  order ;  the  true  Placoids 
would  follow,  succeeded  by  the  Sluriones  ;  and  the  Suctorii, 
i.  e.  Cyclostomi  or  Lampreys,  would  bring  up  the  rear. 
There  would  be  evidently  no  order  here  :  the  utter  confusion 
of  such  an  arrangement,  like  that  of  the  bits  of  a  dissected 
map  flung  carelessly  out  of  its  box  by  a  child,  would  of 
itself  demonstrate  the  inadequacy  and  erroneousness  of 
the  regulating  principle.  But  how  very  different  the  appear- 
ance presented,  when  for  solidity  of  hone  we  substi- 
tute development  of  brain !      Man   takes   his   proper   place 


ON    BRAIN,    NOT    BONE.  161 

at  the  head  of  creation  ;  the  lower  mammalia  follow, — each 
species  in  due  order,  according  to  its  modicum  of  intel- 
ligence ;  the  birds  succeed  the  mammalia  ;  the  reptiles  suc- 
ceed the  birds ;  the  fishes  succeed  the  reptiles ;  next  in 
the  long  procession  come  the  invertebrate  animals ;  and 
these,  too,  take  rank,  if  not  according  to  their  development 
of  brain  proper,  at  least  according  to  their  development  of 
the  substance  of  brain.  The  occipital  nervous  ganglion  of  the 
scorpion  greatly  exceeds  in  size  that  of  the  earthworm ;  and 
the  occipital  nervous  ring  of  the  lobster,  that  of  the  intes- 
tinal Ascaris.  At  length,  when  we  reach  the  lowest  or  acrife 
division  of  the  animal  kingdom,  the  substance  of  brain 
altogether  disappears.  It  has  been  calculated  by  natural- 
ists, that  in  the  vertebrata,  the  brain  in  the  class  of  fishes 
bears  an  average  proportion  to  the  spinal  cord  of  about  two 
to  one ;  in  the  class  of  reptiles,  of  about  two  and  a  half  to 
one  ;  in  the  class  of  birds,  of  about  three  to  one  ;  in  the  class 
of  mammals,  of  about  four  to  one  ;  and  in  the  high-placed, 
sceptre-bearing  human  family,  a  proportion  of  not  less  than 
twenty-three  to  one.  It  is  palpably  according  to  development 
of  brain,  not  development  of  bone,  that  we  are  to  determine 
points  of  precedence  among  the  animals,  —  a  fact  of  which 
no  one  can  be  more  thoroughly  aware  than  the  author  of  the 
"  Vestiges  "  himself.  Of  this  let  me  adduce  a  striking  in- 
stance, of  which  I  shall  make  further  use  anon. 

"  All  life,"  says  Oken,  "  is  from  the  sea  ;  none  from  the 
continent.  Man  also  is  a  child  of  the  warm  and  shallow 
parts  of  the  sea  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  land."  Such 
also  was  the  hypothesis  of  Lamarck  and  Maillet.  In  follow- 
ing up  the  view  of  his  masters,  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  " 
fixes  on  the  Delphinida  as  the  sea-inhabiting  progenitors  of 
he  siroial  family,  and,  through  the  simlal  family,  of  man. 
14* 


162  RANK    DEPENDENT 

For  that  highest  order  of  the  mammalia  to  which  the  Si' 
miadcc  (monkeys)  belong,  "  there  remains,"  he  says,  "  a 
basis  in  the  DelphinidcB,  the  last  and  smallest  of  the  cetacean 
tribes.  This  affiliation  has  a  special  support  in  the  brain  of 
the  dolphin  family,  which  is  distinctly  allowed  to  be,  m  pro- 
portion to  general  bulk,  the  greatest  among  mammalia  next 
to  the  orang-outang  and  man.  We  learn  from  Tiedemann, 
that  each  of  the  cerebral  hemispheres  is  composed,  as  in 
man  and  the  monkey  tribe,  of  three  lobes,  —  an  anterior,  a 
middle,  and  a  posterior  ;  and  these  hemispheres  present 
much  more  numerous  circumvolutions  and  grooves  than  those 
of  any  other  animal.  Here  it  might  be  rash  to  found  any 
thing  upon  the  ancient  accounts  of  the  dolphin,  —  its  famil- 
iarity with  man,  and  its  helping  him  in  shipwreck  and  various 
marine  disasters  ;  although  it  is  difficult  to  believe  these  sto- 
ries to  be  altogether  without  some  basis  in  fact.  There  is  no 
doubt,  however,  that  the  dolphin  evinces  a  predilection  for 
human  society,  and  charms  the  mariner  by  the  gambols  which 
it  performs  beside  his  .vessel." 

Here,  then,  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  "  palpably  founds 
on  a  large  development  of  brain  in  the  dolphin,  and  on  the 
manifestation  of  a  correspondingly  high  order  of  instincts,  — 
and  this  altogether  irrespective  of  the  structure  or  compo- 
sition of  the  creature's  internal  skeleton.  The  substance  to 
which  he  looks  as  all-important  in  the  case  is  hrain,  not  hone. 
For  were  he  to  estimate  the  standing  of  the  dcdphin,  not  by 
its  brain,  but  by  its  skeleton,  he  would  have  to  assign  to  it  a 
place,  not  only  not  in  advance  of  its  brethren  the  mammalia 
of  the  sea,  but  even  in  the  rear  of  the  reptiles  of  the  sea,  the 
marine  tortoises,  or  turtles,  —  and  scarce  more  than  abreast 
of  the  osseous  fishes.  "  Fishes,"  says  Professor  Owen,  in  his 
*  Lectures  on  the  Vertebrate  Animals,"  "  have  the  least  pro- 


ON    BRAIN,    NOT    BONE.  163 

portion  of  earthy  matter  in  their  bones  ;  birds  the  largest. 
The  mammalia,  especially  the  active,  predatory  species,  have 
more  earth,  or  harder  bones,  than  reptiles.  In  each  class, 
however,  there  are  differences  in  the  density  of  bone  among 
its  several  members.  For  example,  in  the  fresh-water  fishes, 
the  bones  are  lighter,  and  retain  more  animal  matter,  than 
.n  those  which  swim  in  the  denser  sea.  And  in  the  dolphin, 
a  warm-blooded  marine  animal,  they  differ  little  in  this  re- 
spect from  those  of  the  sea-fish."  Such  being  the  fact,  it  is 
surely  but  fair  to  inquire  of  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges," ' 
why  he  should  determine  the  rank  and  standing  of  the  Del- 
phinidcB  according  to  one  set  of  principles,  and  the  rank  and 
standing  of  the  Placoids  according  to  another  and  entirely 
different  set .''  If  the  Delpldnidce.  are  to  be  placed  high  in  the 
scale,  notwithstanding  the  softness  of  their  skeletons,  simply 
Decause  their  brains  are  large,  why  are  the  Placoids  to  be 
placed  low  in  the  scale,  notwithstanding  the  largeness  of  their 
brains,  simply  because  their  skeletons  are  soft .''  It  is  not  too 
much  to  demand,  that  on  the  principle  which  he  himself  re- 
cognizes as  just,  he  should  either  degrade  the  dolphin  or  ele- 
vate the  Placoid.  For  it  is  altogether  inadmissible  that  he 
should  reason  on  one  set  of  laws  when  the  exigencies  of  I  is 
hypothesis  require  that  creatures  with  soft  skeletons  should 
be  raised  in  the  scale,  and  on  another  and  entirely  differ- 
ent set  when  its  necessities  demand  that  they  should  be  de- 
pressed. 

But  do  the  Placoids  possess  in  reality  a  large  development 
of  brain  ?  I  have  examined  the  brains  of  almost  all  the  com- 
mon fish  of  our  coast,  both  osseous  and  cartilaginous,  not, 
I  fear,  with  the  skill  of  a  Tiedemann,  but  all  the  more  intel- 
ligently in  consequence  of  what  Tiedemann  had  previously 
done  and  written ;  and  so  I  can  speak  with  some  little  con- 


164  THE   PLACOID   BRAIN. 

fidence  on  the  subject,  so  far  at  least  as  my  modicum  of  ex- 
perience, thus  acquired,  extends.  Of  all  the  common  fish 
of  the  Scottish  seas,  the  spotted  or  lesser  dog-fish  bears,  in 
proportion  to  its  size,  the  largest  brain ;  the  gray  or  picked 
dog-fish  ranks  next  in  its  degree  of  development ;  the  Rays, 
in  their  various  species,  follow  after  ;  and  the  osseous  fishes 
compose  at  least  the  great  body  of  the  rear ;  vv'hile  still 
further  behind,  there  lags  a  hapless  class  —  the  Suctorii,  one 
of  which,  the  glutinous  hag,  has  scarce  any  brain,  and  one, 
the  Amphioxus  or  lancelet,  wants  brain  altogether.  I  have 
compared  the  brain  of  the  spotted  dog-fish  with  that  of  a 
young  alligator,  and  have  found  that  in  scarce  any  percep- 
tible degree  was  it  inferior,  in  point  of  bulk,  and  very  slightly 
indeed  in  point  of  organization,  to  the  brain  of  the  reptile. 
And  the  instincts  of  this  Placoid  family,  —  one  of  the  truest 
existing  representatives  of  the  Placoids  of  the  Silurian  Sys- 
tem *  to  which  we  can  appeal,  —  correspond,  we  invariably 
find,  with  their  superior  cerebral  development.  I  have 
seen  the  common  dog-fish,  Spinax  Acanthias,  hovering  in 
packs  in  the  Moray  Frith,  some  one  or  two  fathoms  away 
from  the  side  of  the  herring  boat  from  which,  when  the 
fishermen  were  engaged  in  hauling  their  nets,  I  have  watched 
them,  and  have  admired  the  caution  which,  with  all  their 
ferocity  of  disposition,  they  rarely  failed  to  manifest ;  —  how 
they  kept  aloof  from  the  net,  even  more  warily  than  the 
cetacea  themselves,  —  though  both  dog-fish  and  cetacea  are 
occasionally  entangled  ;  —  and  how,  when  a  few  herrings  were 

♦  The  Silurian  Placoids  are  most  adequately  represented  by  the 
Cestracion  of  the  southern  hemisphere  ;  but  I  know  not  that  of  the 
peculiar  character  and  instincts  of  this  interesting  Placoid,  —  the  last 
of  its  race,  —  there  is  any  thing  known.  For  its  form  and  general  ap« 
pearance  see  fig.  49,  page  177. 


THE    PLACOID    BRAIN.  165 

shaken  loose  from  the  meshes,  they  at  once  darted  upon  them, 
exhibiting  for  a  moment,  through  the  green  depths,  the  pale 
gleam  of  their  abdomens,  as  they  turned  upon  their  sides  to 
seize  the  desired  morsels,  —  a  motion  rendered  necessary  by 
the  position  of  the  mouth  in  this  family  ;  and  how  next,  theii 
object  accomplished,  they  fell  back  into  their  old  position,  and 
waited  on  as  before.  And  I  have  been  assured  by  intelligent 
fishermen,  that  at  the  deep-sea  white-fishing,  in  which  baited 
hooks,  not  nets,  are  employed,  the  degree  of  shrewd  caution 
exercised  by  these  creatures  seems  more  extraordinary  still. 
The  hatred  which  the  fisher  bears  to  them  arises  not  more 
from  the  actual  amount  of  mischief  which  they  do  him,  than 
from  the  circumstance  that  in  most  cases  they  persist  in 
doing  it  with  complete  impunity  to  themselves.  I  have  seen, 
said  an  observant  Cromarty  fisherman  to  the  writer  of  these 
chapters,  a  pack  of  dog-fish  watching  beside  our  boat,  as  we 
were  hauling  our  hues,  and  severing  the  hooked  fish,  as 
they  passed  them,  at  a  bite,  just  a  little  above  the  vent,  so  that 
they  themselves  escaped  the  swallowed  hook  ;  and  I  have 
frequently  lost,  in  this  way,  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  a 
fishing.  I  have  observed,  however,  he  continued,  that  when 
a  fresh  pack  of  hungry  dog-fish  came  up,  and  joined  the 
pack  that  had  been  robbing  us  so  coolly,  and  at  their  leisure, 
a  sudden  rashness  would  seize  the  whole,  —  the  united  packs 
would  become  a  mere  heedless  mob,  and,  rushing  forward, 
they  would  swallow  our  fish  entire,  and  be  caught  themselves 
by  the  score  and  the  hundred.  We  may  see  something  very 
similar  to  this  taking  place  among  even  the  shrewder  mam- 
malia. When  pug  refuses  to  take  his  food,  his  mistress 
straightway  calls  upon  the  cat,  and,  quickened  by  the  dread 
of  the  coming  rival,  he  gobbles  up  his  rations  at  once.  With 
the  comparatively  ^arge  development  of  brain,  and  the  cor- 


166  THE   PLACOID   INSTINCTS. 

esponding  manifestations  of  instinct,  which  the  true  Placoids 
rxhibit,  we  find  other  unequivocal  marks  of  a  general  supe- 
iiority  to  their  class.  In  their  reproductive  organs  they  rank, 
not  with  the  common  fishes,  nor  even  with  the  lower  rep- 
tiles, but  with  the  Chelonians  and  the  Sauria.  Among  the 
Rays,  as  among  the  higher  animals,  there  are  individual 
attachments  formed  between  male  and  female :  their  eggs 
unlike  the  mere  spawn  of  the  osseous  fishes,  or  of  even  the 
Batrachians,  are,  like  those  of  the  tortoise  and  the  crocodile, 
comparatively  few  in  number,  and  of  considerable  size : 
their  young,  too,  like  the  young  of  birds  and  of  the  highei 
reptiles,  pass  through  no  such  metamorphosis  as  those  of  the 
toad  and  frog,  or  of  the  amphibia  generally.  And  some 
of  their  number — the  common  dog-fish  for  instance  — 
are  ovoviviparous,  bringing  forth  their  young,  like  the 
common  viper  and  the  viviparous  lizard,  alive  and  fully 
formed. 

"  But  such  features,"  says  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges," 
referring  chiefly  to  certain  provisions  connected  with  the  re- 
productory  system  in  the  Placoids,  "  are  partly  partaken  of  by 
families  in  inferior  sub-kingdoms,  showing  that  they  cannot 
truly  be  regarded  as  marks  of  grade  in  their  own  class." 
Nay,  single  features  do  here  and  there  occur  in  the  inferior 
sub-kingdoms,  which  very  nearly  resemble  single  features  in 
the  placoid  character  and  organization,  which  even  very 
nearly  resemble  single  features  in  the  human  character  and 
organization;  but  is  there  any  of  the  inferior  sub-kingdoms 
in  which  there  occurs  such  a  collocation  of  features .''  or  does 
such  a  collocation  occur  in  any  class  of  animals  —  setting  the 
Placoids  wholly  out  of  view  —  which  is  not  a  high  class.? 
Nay,  further,  does  there  occur  in  any  of  the  inferior  sub- 
itingdoms — existing   even  as  a  single  feature  —  that  mos^ 


THE    PLACOID   FRAMEWOKK.  167 

prominent,  leading  characteristic  of  this  series  of  fishes,  —  a 
large  brain  ? 

But  is  not  the  "  cartilaginous  structure "  of  the  Placoids 
analogous  to  the  embryonic  state  of  vertebrated  animals  in  gen- 
nral  ?  Do  not  the  other  placoid  peculiarities  to  which  the 
author  of  the  "  Vestiges  "  refers,  —  such  as  the  heterocercal 
or  one-sided  tail,  the  position  of  the  mouth  on  the  under  side 
of  the  head,  and  the  rudimcsntal  state  of  the  maxillaries  and 
intermaxillaries,  —  bear  fuither  analogies  with  the  embrj'onic 
state  of  the  higher  animals  ?  And  is  not "  embryonic  progress 
the  grand  key  to  the  theory  of  development  ? "  Let  us  ex- 
amine this  matter.  "  These  are  the  characters,"  says  this 
ingenious  writer,  "  which,  above  all,  I  am  chiefly  concerned  in 
looking  to  ;  for  they  are  features  of  embryonic  progress,  and 
embryonic  progress  is  the  grand  key  to  the  theory  of  develop- 
ment." Bold  assertion,  certainly  ;  but,  then,  assertion  is  not 
argument !  The  statement  is  not  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is 
in  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges,"  but  simply  an  avowal  of  it ; 
it  is  simply  a  confession,  not  a  defence,  of  the  Lamarckian 
creed ;  and,  instead  of  being  admitted  as  embodying  a  first 
principle,  it  must  be  put  stringently  to  the  question,  in  order 
to  determine  whether  it  contain  a  principle  at  all. 

In  the  first  place,  let  us  remark,  that  the  cartilaginous 
structure  of  the  Placoids  bears  no  very  striking  analogy  to 
the  cartilaginous  structure  of  the  higher  vertebrata  in  the 
embryonic  state.  In  the  case  of  the  DelphinidcB,  with  then 
soft  skeletons,  the  analogy  is  greatly  more  close.  Bone 
consists  of  animal  matter,  chiefly  gelatinous,  hardened  by  a 
diffusion  of  inorganic  earth.  In  the  bones  of  young  and 
foetal  mammalia,  inhabitants  of  the  land,  the  gelatinous  pre- 
vails ;  in  the  old  and  middle-aged  there  is  a  preponderance 
of  the  earth.     Now,  in  the   bones   of  the  dolphin  there  is 


168  THE   PLACOID  FRAMEWORK. 

comparatively   little   earth.     The   analogies   of   its  internal 
skeleton  bear,  not  on  the  skeletons  of  its  brethren  the  mature 
full-grown  mammals  of  the  land,  but  on  the  skeletons  of  their 
immature  or  foetal  offspring.     But  in  the  case  of  the  true 
Placoids  that  analogy  is  faint  indeed.     Their  skeletons  contain 
true  bone ;  —  the    vertebral  joints  of  the  Sharks  and  Rays 
possess  each,  as  has  been  shown,  an  osseous  nucleus,  which 
retains,  when  subjected  to  the  heat  of  a  common  fire,  the 
complete  form  of  the  joint ;  and  their  cranial  framework  has 
its  surface  always  covered  over  with  hard   osseous    points. 
But  though  their  skeletons  possess  thus  their  modicum  of  bone, 
unlike  those  of  embryonic  birds  or  mammals,  they  contain,  in 
what  is  properly  their  cartilage,  no  gelatine.     The  analogy 
signally  fails  in  the  very  point  in  which  it  has  been  deemed 
specially  to  exist.     The  cartilage  of  the  Chondropterygii  is  a 
substance   so   essentially   different    from   that   of  young    or 
embryonic  birds  and  mammals,  and  so  unique  in  the  animal 
kingdom,  that  the  heated  water  in  which  the  one  readily  dis- 
solves has  no  effect  whatever  upon  the  other.     It  is,  however, 
a  curious   circumstance,  exemplified   in  some   of  the  Shark 
family,*  though   it  merely  serves,  in  its  exceptive  character, 
to    establish    the    general    fact,  that   while  the  rays   of  the 
double  fins,  which  answer  to  the  phalanges,  are  all  formed 
of  this  indissoluble   cartilage,   those   rays   which   constitute 
their   outer   framework,    with   the  rays  which  constitute  the 
framework  of  all  the  single  fins,  are  composed  of  a  mucoidal 
cartilage,  which    boils    into  glue.      At  certain  definite  lines 
a  change  occurs  in  the  texture  of  the  skeleton ;    and    it  is 
certainly    suggestive    of    thought,    that    the    difference    of 
substance    which    the    change    involves    distinguishes    that 

*  Such  as  the  dog-fishes,  picked  and  spotted. 


THE    EMBRYONIC   TAIL.  169 

part  of  the  skeleton  which  is  homologically  representative  of 
the  skeletons  of  the  higher  vertebrata,  from  that  part  of  it 
which  is  peculiar  to  the  creature  as  a  fish,  viz.  the  dorsal  and 
caudal  rays,  and  the  extremities  of  the  double  fins.  These 
emphatically  ichthyic  portions  of  the  animal  may  be  dissi- 
pated by  boiling,  whereas  what  Linnaeus  would  perhaps  term 
its  reptilian  portion  abides  the  heat  without  reduction. 

But  is  not  the  one-sided  tail,  so  characteristic  of  the  sharks, 
and  of  almost  all  the  ancient  Ganoids,  also  a  characteristic  of 
the  young  salmon  just  burst  from  the  egg  ?  Yes,  assuredly  ; 
and,  so  far  as  research  on  the  subject  has  yet  extended,  of 
not  only  the  salmon,  but  of  all  the  other  osseous  fishes  in 
their  fcetal  state.  The  salmon,  on  its  escape  from  the  egg,  is 
a  little  monster  of  about  three  quarters  of  an  inch  in  length, 
with  a  huge  heart-shaped  bag,  as  bulky  as  all  the  rest  of  its 
body,  depending  from  its  abdomen.  In  this  bag  provident 
nature  has  packed  up  for  it,  in  lieu  of  a  nurse,  food  for  five 
weeks ;  and,  moving  about  every  where  in  its  shallow  pool, 
with  its  provision  knapsack  slung  fast  to  it,  it  reminds  one 
disposed  to  be  fanciful,  save  that  its  burden  is  on  the  wrong 
side,  of  Scottish  soldiers  of  the  olden  time  summoned  to  attend 
their  king  in  war,  — 

"  Each  on  his  back,  a  slender  store, 
His  forty  days'  provision  bore, 
As  ancient  statutes  tell." 

Around  that  terminal  part  of  the  creature's  body  traversed  by 
the  caudal  portion  of  the  vertebral  column,  which  com- 
mences in  the  salmon  immediately  behind  the  ventrals,  there 
runs  at  this  period,  and  for  the  ensuing  five  weeks  in  which 
it  does  not  feed,  a  membranous  fringe  or  fin,  which  exactly 
resembles  that  of  the  tadpole,  and  which,  existing  simply  aa 
an  expansion  of  the  skin,  exhibits  no  mark  or  rays.     Tn  the 


70  EMBRYONIC  PECULIARITIES 

place  of  the  true  caudal  fin,  however,  we  rr.£.y  detect  wit.i 
the  assistance  of  a  lens,  an  internal  framework  with  two 
well-marked  lobes,  and  ascertain,  further,  that  this  fail  is  set 
on  awry,  —  the  effect  of  a  slight  upward  bend  in  the  crc  ature's 
body.  And  when  viewed  in  a  strong  light  as  a  transparency 
we  perceive  that  the  spinal  cord  takes  the  same  upward  bend 
and,  as  in  the  sturgeon,  passes  in  an  exceedingly  attenuated 
form  into  the  upper  lobe.  What  may  be  regarded  as  the 
design  of  the  arrangement  is  probably  to  be  found  in  the  pe 
culiar  form  given  to  the  little  creature  by  the  protuberan 
bag  in  front.  A  wise  instinct  teaches  it,  from  the  moment  of 
its  exclusion  from  the  egg,  to  avoid  its  enemies.  In  the  in- 
stant the  human  shadow  falls  upon  its  pool,  we  see  it  darting 
into  some  recess  at  the  side  or  bottom,  with  singular  alacrity  ; 
and  in  order  to  enable  it  to  do  so,  and  to  steer  itself  aright,  — 
as,  like  an  ill-trimmed  vessel,  deep  in  the  water  ahead,  the 
balance  of  its  body  is  imperfect,  —  there  is,  if  1  may  so  ex- 
press myself,  a  heterocercal  peculiarity  of  helm  required.  It 
has  got  an  irregularly-developed  tail  to  balance  an  irregularly- 
developed  body,  as  skiffs  lean  on  the  one  beam  and  full  on 
the  other  require,  in  rowing,  a  cast  of  the  rudder  to  keep  them 
straight  in  their  course. 

Sinking  altogether,  however,  the  final  cause  of  the  peculi- 
arity, and  regarding  it  simply  as  a  fcztal  one,  that  indicates  a 
certain  stage  of  imperfection  in  the  creature  in  which  it  oc- 
curs, on  what  principle,  I  ask,  are  we  to  infer  that  what  is  a 
sign  of  immaturity  in  the  young  of  one  set  of  animals,  is  a 
mark  of  inferior  organization  in  the  adult  forms  of  another 
set  >  The  want  of  eyes  in  any  of  the  animal  families,  or  the 
want  of  organs  of  progression,  or  a  fixed  and  sedentary  con- 
dition, like  that  of  the  oyster,  are  all  marks  of  great  inferior! 
ty.   And  yet,  if  we  admit  the  principle,  that  what  are  evidences 


NOT  NECESSARILY  OF  A  LOW  ORDER.         171 

cf  immatu:ity  in  the  young  members  of  one  family  are  signs 
of  inferior  organization  in  the  fully-grown  members  of  another, 
it  could  easily  be  shown  that  eyes  and  legs  are  defects,  and 
that  the  unmoving  oyster  stands  higher  in  the  scale  than  the 
ever-restless  fish  or  bird.  The  immature  Tubularia  possess 
locomotive  powers,  whereas  in  their  fully  developed  state  they 
remain  fixed  to  one  spot  in  their  convoluted  tubes.  The  im- 
mature Lepas  is  furnished  with  members  well  adapted  for 
swimming,  and  with  which  it  swims  freely  ;  .as  it  rises  towards 
maturity,  these  become  blighted  and  weak ;  and,  when 
fully  grown,  —  fixed  by  its  fleshy  pedicle  to  the  rock  or  float- 
ing log  to  which  it  attached  itself  in  its  transition  state,  —  it 
is  no  longer  able  to  swim.  The  immature  Balanus  is  fur- 
nished with  two  eyes :  in  its  state  of  maturity  these  are  ex- 
tinguished, and  it  passes  its  period  of  full  development  in 
darkness.  Further,  it  is  not  generally  held  that  in  the  human 
family  a  white  skin  is  a  decided  mark  of  degradation,  but 
rather  the  reverse  ;  and  yet  nothing  can  be  more  certain  than 
that  the  Negro  fcetus  has  a  white  skin.  Since  eyes,  and  or- 
gans of  progression,  and  a  power  of  moving  freely,  and  a 
white  skin,  are  mere  embryonic  peculiarities  in  the  Balanus 
the  Lepas,  the  Tubularia,  and  the  Negro,  and  yet  are  in  them- 
selves, when  found  in  the  mature  animal,  evidences  of  a 
high,  not  of  a  low  standing,  on  what  principle,  I  ask,  are  we 
to  infer  mat  the  peculiarity  of  a  heterocercal  tail,  embryonic 
in  the  saimon,  is,  when  found  in  the  mature  Placoid,  an  evi- 
dence, not  of  a  high  standing,  but  of  a  low  '  Every  true 
analogy  in  the  case  favors  an  exactly  opposite  \iew.  In  the 
heterocercal  or  one-sided  tail,  the  vertebral  joints  gradually 
diminish,  as  in  the  tails  of  the  Sauria  and  OpJiidia,  till  they 
terminate  in  a  point ;  whereas  the  homocercal  tail  common  to 
the   osseous   fishes  exhibits  no  true  analogy  with   the   tails 


172 


THE    PLACOID    TAIL. 


of  the  li'gher  ordars.  Its  abruptly  terminating  vertebral  col- 
umn, immensely  developed  posterior  processes,  and  broadlv 
expanded  osseous  rays,  seem  to  be  simply  a  few  of  the  many 
marks  of  decline  and  degradation  which  fishes,  the  oldest  of 
the  vertebrata,  exhibit  in  this  late  age  of  the  world,  and  which, 
in  at  least  the  earlier  geologic  periods,  when  they  were  great- 
ly younger  as  a  class,  they  did  not  betray. 

Rz.  48. 


a.  Tail  of  Spitiax  Acanthias. 

b.  Tail  of  Ichthyosaurus  Tenuirostris ,  (Buckland.) 


In  illustration  of  this  view,  I  would  fain  recommend  to  the 
reader  a  simple  experiment.  Let  him  procure  the  tail  of  a 
common  dog-fish,  (fig.  48,  a,)  and  cutting  it  across  about  half 
an  inch  above  where  the  caudal  fin  begins,  let  him  boil  it 
smartly  for  about  half  an  hour.     He  will  first  see  it  swell, 


THE    PLACOID   TAIL.  173 

and  then  burst,  all  around  those  thinner  parts  of  the  fin  that 
are  traversed  by  ths  caudal  rays,  —  wholly  mucoidal,  as  shown 
by  this  test,  in  their  texture,  and  which  yield  to  the  boiling 
water,  as  if  formed  of  isinglass.  They  finally  dissohe,  and 
drop  away,  with  the  surrounding  cuticular  integument ;  and 
then  there  only  remains,  as  the  insoluble  framework  of  the 
whole,  the  bodies  of  the  vertebriE,  with  their  neural  and 
hcemal  pn^cesses.  The  tail  has  now  lost  much  of  its  ichthyic 
character,  and  has  acquired,  instead,  a  considerable  degree 
of  resemblance  to  the  reptilian  tail,  as  exemplified  in  the  sau- 
rians.  I  have  introduced  into  the  wood-cut,  for  the  purpose 
of  comparison,  the  tail  of  the  ichthyosaurus,  (h.)  It  consists 
like  the  other,  of  a  series  of  gradually  diminishing  vertebrse 
and  must  have  also  supported,  says  Professor  Owen,  a  pro 
polling  fin,  placed  vertically,  as  in  the  shark,  which,  hoW' 
ever,  from  its  perishable  nature,  has  in  every  instance  dis 
appeared  in  the  earth,  as  that  of  the  dog-fish  disappears  in 
the  boiling  water.  It  will  be  seen  that  its  processes  are  com- 
paratively smaller  than  those  of  the  fish,  and  that  the  bodies 
of  its  vertebrae  are  shorter  and  bulkier  ;  but  there  is  at  least 
a  general  correspondence  of  the  parts  ;  and  were  the  tail  of  the 
crocodile,  of  which  the  vertebral  bodies  are  slender  and  the 
processes  large,  to  be  substituted  for  that  of  the  enaliosaur  here, 
the  correspondence  would  be  more  marked  still.  After  thus 
developing  the  tail  of  the  reptile  out  of  that  of  the  fish,  —  as  the 
cauldron-bearing  Irish  magician  of  the  tale  developed  young 
ladies  out  of  old  women,  —  simply  by  boiling,  let  the  reader 
proceed  to  a  second  stage  of  the  experiment,  and  see  whether 
he  may  not  be  able  still  further  to  develope  the  reptilian  tail  so 
obtained,  into  that  of  the  mammal,  by  burning.  Let  him  spread 
it  out  on  a  piece  of  iron  hoop,  and  thrust  it  into  the  fire ; 
and  then,  after  exposure  for  some  time  to  a  red  heat  has 
15  * 


174  THE    PLACOID    TAIL. 

consumed  and  dissipated  its  merely  cartilaginous  portions, 
such  as  the  neural  and  hoemal  processes,  with  the  little  pieces 
which  form  the  sides  of  the  neural  arch,  and  left  only  the 
whitened  bodies  of  the  vertebrae,  let  him  say  whether  the 
bony  portion  which  remains  does  not  present  a  more  exact 
resemblance  to  the  mammiferous  tail  —  that  of  the  dog,  for 
example  —  than  any  thing  else  he  ever  saw.  The  Lamarck- 
ians  may  well  deem  it  an  unlucky  circumstance,  that  one  spe- 
cial portion  of  their  theory  should  demand  the  depreciation  of 
the  heterocercal  tail,  seeing  that  it  might  be  represented  with 
excellent  effect  in  another,  as  not  merely  a  connecting  link  in 
the  upward  march  of  progression  between  the  tail  of  the  true 
fish  and  that  of  the  true  reptile,  but  as  actually  contoining  in 
itself —  as  the  caterpillar  contains  the  future  pupa  and  but- 
terfly—  the  elements  of  the  reptilian  and  mammiferous  tail. 
If  there  be  any  virtue  in  analogy,  the  heterocercal  tail  is,  I 
repeat,  of  a  decidedly  higher  type  than  the  homocercal  one. 
It  furnishes  the  first  example  in  the  vertebrata  of  the  coc- 
cygeal vertebrae  diminishing  to  a  point,  which  characterizes 
not  only  all  the  higher  reptiles,  but  also  all  the  higher  mam- 
mals, and  which  we  find  represented  by  the  Os  coccygis  in 
man  himself.     But  to  this  special  point  I  shall  again  refer. 

With  regard  to  that  rudimentary  state  of  the  occipital 
framework  of  the  Placoids  to  which  the  author  of  the  "  Ves- 
tiges" refers,  it  may  be  but  necessary  to  say  that,  notwith- 
standing the  simplicity  of  their  box-like  skulls,  they  bear  in 
their  character,  as  cases  for  the  protection  of  the  brain, 
at  least  as  close  an  analogy  to  the  skulls  of  the  higher  ani- 
mals, as  those  of  the  osseous  fishes,  which  consist  usually 
of  the  extraordinary  number  of  from  sixty  to  eighty  bones,  — 
a  mark — the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges"  himself  being  judge 
,n  the  03.^3  —  rather  of  inferiority  than  the  reverse.     "  Ele- 


THE    PLACOID    CRANIUM    AND    MOUTH.  175 

vation  is  marka;.  in  the  scale,"  we  find  him  saying,  "  by  an 
animal  exchang  ng  a  multiplicity  of  parts  serving  one  end, 
for  a  smaller  number."  The  skull  of  a  cod  consists  of  about 
thrice  as  many  separate  bones  as  that  of  a  man.  But  I  do 
not  well  see  that  in  this  case  the  fact  either  of  simplicity  in 
excess  or  of  multiplicity  in  excess  can  be  insisted  upon  in 
either  direction,  as  a  proper  basis  for  argument  Nearly  the 
same  remark  applies  to  the  maxillaries  as  to  the  skull.  The 
under  jaw  in  man  consists  of  a  single  bone  ;  that  of  the  thorn- 
back  —  if  we  do  not  include  the  two  suspending  rihs,  which 
belong  equally  to  the  upper  jaw  —  of  two  bones,  (the  number 
in  all  the  mammiferous  quadrupeds  C\  that  of  the  cod  of 
four  bones,  and,  if  we  include  the  suspending  rihs,  of  twelve. 
On  what  principle  are  we  to  hold,  with  one  as  the  repre- 
sentative number  of  the  highest  type  of  jaw,  that  two  in- 
dicates a  lower  standing  than  four^  or  four  than  twelve  ?  In 
reference  to  the  further  statement,  that  in  many  of  the  an- 
cient fishes  "  traces  can  be  observed  of  the  muscles  hav- 
ing been  attached  to  the  external  plates,  strikingly  indi- 
cating their  low  grade  as  vertebrate  animals,"  it  may  be 
answer  enough  to  state,  that  the  peculiarity  in  question  was 
not  a  characteristic  of  the  7nost  ancient  fishes,  —  the  Placoids 
Df  the  Silurian  system,  —  but  of  some  Ganoids  of  the  suc- 
ceeding systems.  The  reader  may  remember,  as  a  case 
in  point,  the  example  furnished  by  the  nail-like  bone  of 
Asterolepis,  figured  in  page  111,  in  which  there  exists  depres- 
sions resembling  that  of  the  round  ligament  in  the  head  of 
the  quadrupedal  thigh-bone.  And  as  for  the  remark  that 
the  opening  of  tne  mouth  of  the  Placoid,  "  on  the  under  side 
of  the  head,"  is  indicative  of  a  low  embryonic  condition,  it 
might  be  almos';  sufficient  to  remark,  in  turn,  that  the 
lowest  family  of  fishes  —  that  to  which  the  supposed  worms 


176  THE   PLACOID 

of  Linnaeus  belong  —  have  the  mouth  not  under,  but  at  the 
anterior  termination  of  thQ  head,  —  in  itself  an  evidence 
that  the  position  of  the  mouth  at  the  extremity  of  the  muz- 
zle, common  to  the  greater  number  of  the  osseous  fishes, 
can  be  no  \ery  high  character,  seeing  that  the  humblest 
of  the  Suctorii  possess  it;  and  that  many  osseous  fishes, 
whose  mouths  open,  not  on  the  under,  but  the  upper  side  of 
the  snout,  as  in  the  distorted  and  asymetrical  genus  Plalessa, 
are  not  only  in  no  degree  superior  to  their  bony  neighbors, 
and  far  inferior  to  the  placoid  ones,  but  bear,  in  direct  con- 
sequence of  the  arrangement,  an  expression  of  unmistakable 
stupidity.  The  objection,  however,  admits  of  a  greatly  more 
conclusive  reply. 

"  This  fish,  to  speak  in  the  technical  language  of  Agassiz," 
says  the  Edinburgh  Reviewer,  in  reference  to  the  ancient 
ichthyolite  of  the  Wenlock  Shale,  "  undoubtedly  belongs  to 
the  Cestraciont  family  of  the  Placoid  order,  —  proving  to 
demonstration  that  the  oldest  known  fossil  fish  [1845]  be- 
longs to  the  highest  type  of  that  division  of  the  vertebrata.' 
J  may  add,  that  the  character  and  family  of  this  ancient 
specimen  was  determined  by  our  highest  British  authority  in 
fossil  ichthyology,  Sir  Philip  Egerton.  And  it  is  in  depre- 
ciation of  Professor  Sedgwick's  statement  regarding  its  high 
standing  that  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges "  refers  to  the 
supposed  inferiority  indicated  by  a  mouth  opening,  not  at  the 
extremity  of  the  muzzle,  but  under  the  head.  Let  us,  then, 
fully  grant,  for  the  argument's  sake,  that  the  occurrence  of 
the  mouth  in  the  muzzle  is  a  sign  of  superiority,  and  its  oc- 
curreice  under  the  head  a  mark  of  great  inferiority,  and 
ihen  ascertain  how  the  fact  stands  with  regard  to  the  Ceslra- 
cion.  "  The  Ces<racion  sub-genus,"  says  Mr.  .Tames  Wilson, 
m  his  admirable  treatise  on  fishes,  which  forms  the  article 


CRANIUM   AND    MOUTH.  177 

IcHTHT  OLOG"t  ir.  the  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  "  has  the 
temporal  aper.ure,  the  anal  fin,  and  rounded  teeth,  of 
Sqiialus  Mustelus  ;  hut  the  mouth  is  terminal,  or  at  the  ex- 
tremity OF    the    pointed   muzzle."      The    accompanying 

Fig.  49. 


POET  JACXSON  SHABK,  {Cestrocion  PhiUippi,) 

figure,  (fig.  49,)  taken  from  a  specimen  of  Cestracion  in  the 
collection  of  Professor  John  Fleming,  may  be  recorded  as  of 
some  little  interest,  both  from  its  direct  bearing  on  the  point 
in  question,  and  from  the  circumstance  that  it  represents,  not 
inadequately  for  its  size,  the  sole  surviving  species  (  Cestracion 
Phillippi)  of  the  oldest  vertebrate  family  of  creation.  With 
this  family,  so  far  as  is  yet  known,  ichthyic  existence  first  be- 
gan. It  does  not  appear  that  on  the  globe  which  we  inhabit 
there  was  ever  an  ocean  tenanted  by  living  creatures  a1  all 
that  had  not  its  Cestracion^  —  a  statement  which  could  not  be 
made  regarding  any  other  vertebrate  family.  In  Agassiz's 
"  Tabular  View  of  the  Genealogy  of  Fishes,"  the  Cestracionts, 
and  they  only,  sweep  across  the  entire  geologic  scale.  And, 
as  shown  in  the  figure,  the  mouth  in  this  ancient  family,  instead 
of  opening,  as  in  the  ordinary  sharks,  under  the  middle  of  the 
head,   0  exi)ose  them  to  the  suspicion  of  being  creatures  of 


178  GESTATION 

low  and  embryonic  character,  opened  in  a  broad,  honest-look- 
ing muzzle,  very  much  resembling  that  of  the  hog.  The 
mouths  of  the  most  ancient  Placoids  of  which  we  know  any 
thing;  did  not^  I  reiterate,  open  under  their  heads. 

But  why  introduce  the  element  of  embryonic  progress  into 
this  question  at  all  ?  It  is  not  a  question  of  embryonic  pro- 
gress. The  very  legerdemain  of  the  sophist  —  the  juggling 
by  which  he  substitutes  his  white  balls  for  black,  or  converts 
his  pigeons  into  crows  —  consists  in  the  art  of  attaching  the 
conclusions  founded  on  the  facts  or  conditions  of  one  sub- 
ject, to  some  other  subject  essentially  distinct  in  its  nature. 
Gestation  is  not  creation.  The  history  of  the  young  of  ani- 
mals in  their  embryonic  state  is  simply  the  history  of  the  fostal 
young ;  just  as  the  history  of  insect  transformation,  in  which 
it  has  been  held  by  good  men,  but  weak  reasoners,  that  there 
exists  direct  evidence  of  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection,  is 
the  history  of  insect  transformation,  and  of  nothing  else. 
True,  the  human  mind  is  so  constituted  that  it  converts  all 
nature  into  a  storehouse  of  comparisons  and  analogies ;  and 
this  fact  of  the  metamorphosis  of  the  creeping  caterpillar, 
after  first  passing  through  an  intermediate  period  of  apparent 
death  as  an  inert  aurelia,  into  a  winged  image,  seemed  to 
have  seized  on  the  human  fancy  at  a  very  early  age,  as  won- 
derfully illustrative  of  life,  death,  and  the  future  state.  The 
Egyptians  wrapped  up  the  bodies  of  their  dead  in  the  chrysalis 
form,  so  that  a  mummy,  in  their  apprehension,  was  simply  a 
human  pupa,  waiting  the  period  of  its  enlargement ;  and  the 
Greeks  had  but  one  word  in  their  language  for  butterfly  and 
the  soul.  But  not  the  less  true  is  it,  notwithstanding,  ♦hat  the 
facts  of  insect  transformation  furnish  no'  legitimate  key  to  the 
totally  distinct  facts  of  a  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  of  a 
ife  after  death.     And  on  what  principle,  then,  are  we  to  trace 


NOT    CREATION.  179 

the  origin  of  past  dynasties  in  the  changes  of  the  foetus  if 
not  the  rise  of  the  future  dynasty  in  the  transformations  of 
the  caterpillar?  "These  [embrj'onic]  characters  [that  of 
the  heterocercal  tail,  and  of  the  mouth  of  the  ordinary  shark 
type]  are  essential  and  import£.nt,"  remarks  the  author  of  the 
"  Vestiges,"  "  whatever  the  Edinburgh  Reviewer  may  say 
to  the  contrary  ;  —  they  are  the  characters  which,  above  all, 
I  am  chiefly  concerned  in  looking  to,  for  they  are  the  features 
of  embryonic  progress,  and  embryonic  progress  is  the  grand 
key  to  the  theory  of  development."  Yes  ;  the  grand  key  to 
the  theory  of  foetal  development ;  for  embryonic  progress  is 
fcEtal  development.  But  on  what  is  the  assertion  based  that 
they  form  a  key  to  the  history  of  creation  }  Aurelia  are  not 
human  bodies  laid  out  for  the  sepulchre,  nor  are  butterflies 
human  souls  ;  as  certainly  gestation  is  not  creation,  nor  a 
life  of  months  in  the  uterus  a  succession  of  races  for  mil- 
lions of  ages  outside  of  it.  On  what  grounds,  then,  is  the 
assertion  made  ?  Does  it  embody  the  result  of  a  discovery, 
or  announce  the  message  of  a  revelation  ?  Did  the  author  of 
the  "  Vestiges  "  find  it  out  for  himself,  or  did  an  angel  from 
heaven  tell  it  him  ?  If  it  be  a  discovery,  show  us,  we  ask^ 
the  steps  through  which  you  have  been  conducted  to  it ;  if 
a  revolution  produce,  for  our  satisfaction,  the  evidence  on 
which  it  rests.  For  we  are  not  to  accept  as  data,  in  a  ques- 
tion of  science,  idle  comparisons  or  vague  analogies,  whether 
produced  through  the  intentional  juggling  of  the  sophist,  or 
involuntarily  conjured  up  in  the  dreamy  delirium  of  an  excited 
fancy. 

It  is  one  of  the  difficulties  incident  to  the  task  of  replying 
to  any  dogmatic  statement  of  error,  that  every  mere  annun- 
cialion  of  a  false  fact  or  false  principle  must  be  met  by  elab- 
orate counter-statement    or  carefully  constructed  argument, 


180  APOLOGY. 

and  that  prolixity  is  thus  unavoidably  entailed  on  the  contro- 
versialist who  labors  to  set  right  what  his  antagonist  has  set 
wrong.  The  promulgator  of  error  may  be  lively  and  enter- 
taining, whereas  his  pains-taking  confutator  runs  no  small  risk 
of  being  tedious  and  dull.  May  I,  however,  solicit  the  for- 
bearance of  the  reader,  if,  after  already  spending  much  time 
in  skirmishing  on  ground  taken  up  by  the  enemy,  —  one  of 
the  disadvantages  incident  to  the  mere  defendant  in  a  contro- 
versy of  this  nature,  —  I  spend  a  little  more  in  indicating  what 
I  deem  the  proper  ground  on  which  the  standing  of  the  earlier 
vertebrata  should  be  decided.  To  the  test  of  Irain  I  have 
already  referred,  as  all-important  in  the  question:  I  would  now 
refer  to  the  test  of  what  may  be  termed  homological  symmetry 
of  organization. 


THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    DEGRADATiON.  181 


THE  PROGKESS  OF  DEGRADATION. 


ITS   HISTORY. 


Though  all  animals  be  fitted  by  nature  for  the  life  which 
their  instincts  teach  them  to  pursue,  naturalists  have  learned 
to  recognize  among  them  certain  aberrant  and  mutilated 
forms,  in  which  the  type  of  the  special  class  to  which  they 
belong  seems  distorted  and  degraded.  They  exist  as  the 
monster  families  of  creation,  just  as  among  families  there  ap- 
pear from  lime  to  time  monster  individuals,  —  men,  for  in- 
stance, without  feet,  or  hands,  or  eyes,  or  with  their  feet, 
hands,  or  eyes  grievously  misplaced,  —  sheep  with  their  fore 
legs  growing  out  of  their  necks,  or  ducklings  with  their 
wings  attached  to  their  haunches.  Among  these  degraded 
races,  that  of  the  footless  serpent,  which  "  goeth  upon  its 
belly,"  has  been  long  noted  by  the  theologian  as  a  race  typi- 
cal, in  its  condition  and  nature,  of  an  order  of  hopelessly 
degraded  beings,  borne  down  to  the  dust  by  a  clinging  curse ; 
and,  curiously  enough,  when  the  first  comparative  anatomists 
in  the  world  give  their  readiest  and  most  prominent  instance 
of  degradation  among  the  denizens  of  the  natural  world,  it  is 
this  very  order  of  footless  reptiles  that  they  select.  So  far  as 
the  geologist  yet  knows,  the  Ophidians  did  not  appear  during 
the  Secondary  ages,  when  the  monarchs  of  creation  belonged 


182  THE    PRINCIPLE 

to  the  reptilian  division,  but  were  ushered  upon  the  scene 
in  the  times  of  the  Tertiary  deposits,  when  the  mammalian 
dynasty  had  supplanted  that  of  the  Iguanodon  and  Mei^alosau- 
rus.  Their  ill  omened  birth  took  place  when  the  influence 
of  their  house  was  on  the  wane,  as  if  to  set  such  a  stamp  of 
utter  hopelessness  on  its  fallen  condition,  as  that  set  by  the 
birth  of  a  worthless  or  idiot  heir  on  the  fortunes  of  a  sinking 
family.  The  degradation  of  the  Ophidians  consists  in  the 
absence  of  limbs,  —  an  absence  total  in  by  much  the  greater 
number  of  their  families,  and  represented  in  others,  as  in 
the  boas  and  pythons,  by  mere  abortive  hinder  limbs  con- 
cealed in  the  skin ;  but  they  are  thus  not  only  monsttrs 
through  defect  of  parts,  if  I  may  so  express  myself,  but 
also  monsters  through  redundancy,  as  a  vegetative  repe- 
tition of  vertebra  and  ribs,  to  the  number  of  three  or  four 
hundred,  forms  the  special  contrivance  by  which  the  want 
of  these  is  compensated.  I  am  also  disposed  to  regard  the 
poison-bag  of  the  venomous  snakes  as  a  mark  of  degra- 
dation ;  —  it  seems,  judging  from  analogy,  to  be  a  pro- 
tective provision  of  a  low  character,  exemplified  chiefly  in 
the  invertebrate  families,  —  ants,  centipides,  and  mosqui- 
tos, —  spiders,  wasps,  and  scorpions.  The  higher  carnivora 
are,  we  find,  furnished  with  unpoisoned  weapons,  which, 
like  those  of  civilized  man,  are  sufficiently  effective,  simply 
from  the  excellence  of  their  construction,  and  the  power 
with  which  they  are  wielded,  for  every  purpose  of  assault 
or  defence.  It  is  only  the  squalid  savages  and  degraded 
boschmen  of  creation  that  have  their  feeble  teeth  and  tiny 
stings  steeped  in  venom,  and  so  made  formidable!  Monstros- 
ity through  displacement  of  parts  constitutes  yet  another  form 
of  degradation ;  and  this  form,  united,  in  some  instances,  to 
the  other  two,  we  find  curiously  exemplified  in  the  geological 


OF   DEGRADATION.  183 

history  of  the  fish,  —  a  history  which,  with  all  its  blanks  and 
missing  portions,  is  yet  better  known  than  that  of  any  other 
division  of  the  vertebrata.  And  it  is,  I  am  convinced,  from 
a  survey  of  the  progress  of  degradation  in  the  great  ichthyic 
division,  —  a  progress  recorded  as  "with  a  pen  of  iron  in 
the  rock  for  ever,"  —  and  not  from  superficial  views  founded 
on  the  cartilaginous  or  non-cartilaginous  texture  of  the  ichthyic 
skeleton,  that  the  standing  of  the  kingly  fishes  of  the  earlier 
periods  is  to  be  adequately  determined.  Any  other  mode  of 
survey,  save  the  parallel  mode  which  takes  development 
of  brain  into  account,  evolves,  we  find,  nothing  like  principle, 
and  lands  the  inquirer  in  inextricable  difficulties  and  incon- 
sistencies. 

In  all  the  higher  non-degraded  vertebrata  we  find  a  certain 
uniform  type  of  skeleton,  consisting  of  the  head,  the  vertebral 
column,  and  four  limbs ;  and  these  last,  in  the  various  sym- 
metrical forms,  whether  exemplified  in  the  higher  fish,  the . 
higher  reptiles,  the  higher  birds,  the  higher  mammals,  or  in 
man  himself,  occur  always  in  a  certain  determinate  order.  In 
all  the  mammals,  the  scapular  bases  of  the  fore  Jimbs  begin 
opposite  the  eighth  vertebra  from  the  skull  backwards,  the 
seven  which  go  before  being  cervical  or  neck  vertebrae  ;  in 
the  birds,  —  a  division  of  the  vertebrata  that,  from  their  pecu- 
liar organization,  require  longer  and  more  flexible  necks  than 
the  mammals,  —  the  scapulars  begin  at  distances  from  the 
occiput,  varying,  according  to  the  species,  from  opposite  the 
thirteenth  to  opposite  the  twenty-fourth  vertebra  ;  and  in  the 
reptiles,  —  a  division  which,  according  to  Cuvier,  "  presents  a 
greater  diversity  of  forms,  characters,  and  modes  of  gait, 
than  any  of  the  other  two,"  —  they  occur  at  almost  all  points, 
from  opposite  the  second  vertebra,  as  in  the  frog,  to  opposite 
the  thirty-third  or  thirty-fourth  vertebra,  as  in  some  species 


184  PROGRESS 

of  plesiosaurus.  But  in  all,  —  whether  mammals,  birds,  or 
undegraded  reptiles,  —  they  are  so  placed,  that  the  creatures 
possess  necks,  of  greater  or  less  length,  as  an  essential  portion 
of  their  general  type.  The  hinder  limbs  have  also  in  all 
these  three  divisions  of  the  animal  kingdom  their  typical 
place.  They  occur  opposite,  or  very  nearly  opposite,  the 
posterior  termination  of  the  abdominal  cavity,  and  mark  the 
line  of  separation  between  the  vertebrse  of  the  trunk  (dorsal, 
lumbar,  and  sacral)  and  the  third  and  last,  or  caudal  division 
of  the  column, — a  division  represented  in  man  by  but  four 
vertebise,  and  in  the  crocodile  by  about  thirty-five,  but  which 
is  found  to  exist,  as  I  have  already  said,  in  all  the  more  per- 
fect forms.  The  limbs,  then,  in  all  the  symmetrical  animals 
of  the  first  three  classes  of  the  vertebrata,  mark  the  three 
great  divisions  of  the  vertebral  column,  —  the  division  of  the 
neck,  the  division  of  the  trunk,  and  the  division  of  the  tail. 
Let  us  now  inquire  how  the  case  stands  with  the  fourth  and 
lowest  class,  —  that  of  the  fishes. 

In  those  existing  Placoids  that  represent  the  fishes  of  the 
earliest  vertebrate  period,  the  places  of  the  double  fins,  — 
pectorals  and  ventrals,  —  which  form  in  the  ichthyic  class  the 
true  homologues  of  the  limbs,  correspond  to  the  places  which 
these  occupy  in  the  symmetrical  mammals,  birds,  and  reptiles. 
The  scapular  bases  of  the  fore  or  pectoral  fins  ordinarily  be- 
gin opposite  the  twelfth  or  fourteenth  vertebra  ;*  but  they  range, 
as  in  man  and  the  mammals,  in  a  forward  direction,  so  that  the 
fins  themselves  are  opposite  the  eighth  or  tenth.  The  pelvic 
bases  of  the  ventral  fins  are  placed  nearly  opposite  the  base  of 
the  abdomen,  so  that,  as  in  all  the  symmetrical  animals,  the 


*  The  twelfth,  in  Spinax  Acanthias,  and  the  fotirteenth  in  ScylKum 
Stellare. 


OF    DEGHA»ATION.  185 

vent  opens  between,  or  nearly  between,  those  hinder  limbs 
which  the  bases  support.  In  the  Rays,  which,  so  far  as  is  yet 
known,  did  not  appear  in  creation  until  the  Secondary  ages 
had  begun,  the  bases  of  the  fore  limbs,  i.  e.  pectoral  fins, 
are  attached  to  the  lower  part  of  a  huge  cervical  vertebra, 
nearly  equal  in  length  to  all  the  trunk  vertebrae  united ;  and 
in  the  Chimeridee,  which  also  first,  appear  in  the  Secondary 
division,  they  are  attached,  as  in  the  osseous  fishes,  to  the 
hinder  part  of  the  head.  But  in  the  representatives  of  all 
those  Silurian  Placoids  yet  known,  of  which  the  family  can 
be  determined,  or  any  thing  with  safety  predicated,  the  cervical 
division  is  found  to  occur  as  a  series  of  vertebrae :  they  pre- 
sent in  this,  as  in  the  hinder  portion  of  their  bodies,  the  homo- 
logical  symmetry  of  organization  typical  of  that  vertebral  sub 
kingdom  to  which  they  belong. 

In  the  second  great  period  of  ichthyic  existence,  —  that  of 
the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  —  we  find  the  first  example,  in  the 
class  of  fishes,  of  "  monstrosity  through  displacement  of  parts," 
and  apparently  also  —  in  at  least  two  genera,  though  the  evi- 
dence on  this  head  be  not  yet  quite  complete  —  of  "  mon- 
strosity through  defect  of  parts."  In  all  the  Ganoids  of  the 
period,  with  (so  far  as  we  can  determine  the  point)  only  .two 
exceptions,  the  scapular  bases  of  the  fore  limbs  are  brought 
forward  from  their  typical  place  opposite  the  base  of  the  cervi- 
cal vertebrae,  and  stuck  on  to  the  occipital  plate.  There 
occurs,  in  consequence,  in  one  great  order  of  the  ichthyic 
class,  such  a  departure  from  the  symmetrical  type  as  would 
take  place  in  a  monster  example  of  the  human  family  in 
whom  the  neck  had  been  annihilated,  and  the  arms  stuck  on 
to  the  back  of  the  he-jd.  And  in  the  genera  Coccosteus  and 
Ptericlithys  we  find  tne  first  example  of  degradation  through 
defect.  In  the  Ptericlithys  the  hinder  limbs  seem  wanting ; 
16* 


186  PROGKESS 

and  in  the  Coccosteus  we  find  no  trace  of  the /ore  limbs.  The 
one  resembles  a  monster  of  the  human  family  born  without 
hands,  and  the  other  a  monster  born  without  feet.  Ages  and 
centuries  pass,  and  long  unreckoned  periods  come  to  a  close ; 
and  then,  after  the  termination  of  the  Palseozoic  period,  we 
see  that  change  taking  place  in  the  form  of  the  ichthyic  tail, 
10  which  I  have  already  referred,  (and  to  which  I  must  refer 
at  least  once  more,)  as  singularly  illustrative  of  the  progress 
of  degradation.  Yet  other  ages  and  centuries  pass  away, 
during  w  iich  the  reptile  class  attains  to  its  fullest  development, 
in  point  of  size,  organization,  and  number ;  and  then,  after 
the  times  of  the  Cretaceous  deposits  have  begun,  we  find  yet 
another  remarkable  monstrosity  of  displacement  introduced 
among  all  the  fishes  of  one  very  numerous  order,  and  among 
no  inconsiderable  proportion  of  the  fishes  of  another.  In  the 
newly-introduced  Ctenoids,  (Acanthopterygii,)  and  in  those 
families  of  the  Cycloids  which  Cuvier  erected  into  the  order 
Malacofterygii  sub-brachiati,  the  hinder  limbs  are  brought 
forward,  and  stuck  on  to  the  base  of  the  previously  misplaced 
fore  limbs.  All  the  four  limbs,  by  a  strange  monstrosity  of 
displacement,  are  crowded  into  the  place  of  the  extinguished 
neck.  And  such,  at  the  present  day,  is  the  prevalent  type 
among  fishes.  Monstrosity  through  defect  is  also  found  to  in- 
crease ;  so  that  the  snake-like  ajmda,  or  feet-wanting  fishes, 
form  a  numerous  order,  some  of  whose  genera  are  devoid,  as 
in  the  common  eels  and  the  congers,  of  only  the  hinder  limbs; 
while  in  others,  as  in  the  genera  Murajna  and  Synbranchus, 
both  hinder  and  fore  limbs  are  wanting.  In  the  class  of  fishes, 
as  fishes  now  exist,  we  find  many  more  evidences  of  the  mon- 
strosity which  results  from  both  the  misplacement  and  defect 
of  parts,  than  in  the  other  three  classes  of  the  vertebrata  united ; 
an  J  knowing  their  geological  history  better  than  that  of  any  of 


OF    DEGRADATION.  187 

the  Others,  we  know,  in  consequence,  that  the  monstrosities 
did  not  appear  earhj,  but  late,  and  that  the  progress  of  the 
race  as  a  whole,  though  it  still  retains  not  a  few  of  the  higher 
forms,  has  been  a  progress,  not  of  development  from  the  low 
to  the  high,  but  of  degradation  from  the  high  to  the  low. 

The  reader  may  mark  for  himself,  in  the  flounder,  plaice, 
halibut,  or  turbot,  —  fishes  of  a  family  of  which  there  appears 
no  trace  in  the  earlier  periods,  —  an  extreme  example  of  the 
degradation  of  distortion  superadded  to  that  of  displacement. 
At  a  first  glance  the  limbs  seem  but  to  exhibit  merely  the 
amount  of  natural  misarrangement  and  misorder  common 
to  the  Acantlwpterygii  and  Sub-irachiaii  ;  —  the  base  of  the 
pectorals  are  stuck  on  to  the  head,  and  the  base  of  the  ven- 
trals  attached  to  that  of  the  pectorals.  From  the  circum- 
stance, however,  that  the  creature  is  twisted  half  round  and 
laid  on  its  side,  we  find  that  at  least  one  of  the  pairs  of 
double  fins  —  the  pectorals  —  perform  the  part  of  single  fins, 
—  one  projecting  from  the  animal's  superior,  the  other  from 
Its  inferior  side,  in  the  way  the  anal  and  dorsal  fins  project 
from  the  upper  and  under  surfaces  of  other  fishes ;  while  its 
real  dorsal  and  anal  fins,  both  developed  very  largely,  and  — 
in  order  to  preserve  its  balance  —  in  about  an  equal  degree, 
and  wonderfully  correspondent  in  form,  perform,  from  their 
lateral  position,  the  functions  of  single  fins.  Indeed,  at  a  first 
glance  they  seem  the  anafogues  of  the  largely-developed  pec- 
torals of  a  very  different  family  of  flat  fishes,  —  the  Rays. 
It  would  appear  as  if  single  and  double  fins,  by  some  such 
mutual  agreement  as  that  which,  according  to  the  old  ballad, 
took  place  between  the  churl  of  Auchtermuchty  and  hia 
wife,  had  agreed  to  exchange  callings,  and  perform  each  the 
work  of  the  other.  The  *ail,  too,  possesses,  in  consequence 
of  the  twist,  not  the  vertical  position  of  other  fish-tails,  but 


188  PROGEESS 

is  spread  ou;  hoiizontally,  like  the  tails  of  the  cetacea.  It  is, 
however,  in  the  head  of  the  flounder  and  its  cogeners  that 
we  find  the  more  extraordinary  distortions  exemplified.  In 
order  to  accommodate  it  to  the  general  twist,  which  rendered 
lateral  what  in  other  fishes  is  dorsal  and  abdominal,  and  dor- 
sal and  abdominal  what  in  other  fishes  is  lateral,  one  half  its 
features  had  to  be  twisted  to  the  one  side,  and  the  other  half 
to  the  other.  The  face  and  cranium  have  undergone  such  a 
change  as  that  which  the  human  face  and  cranium  would  un- 
dergo, were  the  eyes  to  be  drawn  towards  the  left  ear,  and  the 
mouth  towards  the  right.  The  skull,  in  consequence,  exhibits, 
in  its  fixed  bones,  a  strange  Cyclopean  character,  unique 
among  the  families  of  creation :  it  has  its  one  well-marked 
eye  orbit  opening,  like  that  of  Polyphemus,  direct  in  the  middle 
of  the  fore  part  of  its  head  ;  while  the  other,  external  to  the 
cranium  altogether,  we  find  placed  among  the  free  bones,  di- 
rectly over  the  maxillaries.  And  the  wry  mouth  —  twisted  in 
the  opposite  direction,  as  if  to  keep  up  such  a  balance  of  de- 
formity as  that  which  the  breast-hump  of  a  hunchback  forms  to 
the  hump  behind  —  is  in  keeping  with  the  squint  eyes.  The 
jaws  are  strangely  asymmetrical.  In  symmetrical  fishes  the 
two  bones  that  compose  the  anterior  half  of  the  lower  jaw  are 
as  perfectly  correspondent  in  form  and  size  as  the  left  hand  or 
left  foot  is  correspondent,  in  the  human  subject,  to  the  right 
hand  or  right  foot ;  but  not  such  their  character  in  the  floun- 
der. The  one  is  a  broad,  short,  nearly  straight  bone  ;  the  other 
is  larger,  narrower,  and  bent  like  a  bow ;  and  while  the  one 
contains  only  from  four  to  six  teeth,  the  other  contains  from 
thirty  to  thirty-five.  Scarcely  in  the  entire  ichthyic  kingdom 
are  there  any  two  jaws  that  less  resemble  one  another  than  the 
two  halves  of  the  jaw  of  the  flounder,  turbot,  halibut,  or  plaice. 
The  intermaxillary  bones  are  equally  ill  matched :  the  one  is 


OF   DEGRADATION.  189 

fully  twice  the  s'ze  of  the  other,  and  contains  about  thrice  as 
many  teeth.  T.iat  bilateral  symmetry  of  the  skeleton  which 
is  so  mvariable  a  characteristic  of  the  vertebrata,  that  ordinary 
observers,  who  have  eyes  for  only  the  rare  and  the  uncom- 
mon, fail  to  remark  it,  but  which  a  Newton  could  regard  as  so 
wonderful,  and  so  thoroughly  in  harmony  with  the  uniformity 
of  the  planetary  system,  has  scarce  any  place  in  the  asymmet- 
rical head  of  the  flounder.  There  exists  in  some  of  our  north 
country  fishing  villages  an  ancient  apologue,  which,  though 
not  remarkable  for  point  or  meaning,  at  least  serves  to  show 
that  this  peculiar  example  of  distortion  the  rude  fishermen  of 
a  former  age  were  observant  enough  to  detect.  Once  on  a 
time  the  fishes  met,  it  is  said,  to  elect  a  king  ;  and  their 
choice  fell  on  the  herring.  "  The  herring  king  !  "  contempt- 
uously exclaimed  the  flounder,  a  fish  of  consummate  vanity, 
and  greatly  piqued  on  this  occasion  that  its  own  presumed 
claims  should  have  been  overlooked  ;  "  where,  then,  am  I  }  " 
And  straightway,  in  punishment  of  its  conceit  and  rebellion, 
"  its  eyes  turned  to  the  back  of  its  head."  Here  is  there  a 
story  palpably  founded  on  the  degradation  of  misplacement 
and  distortion,  which  originated  ages  ere  the  naturalist  had 
recognized  either  the  term  or  the  principle. 

It  would  be  an  easy  matter  for  an  ingenious  theorist,  not 
much  disposed  to  distinguish  between  the  minor  and  the 
master  laws  of  organized  being,  to  get  up  quite  as  unexcep- 
tionable a  theory  of  degradation  as  of  development.  The 
one-eyed,  one-legged  Chelsea  pensioner,  who  had  a  child,  un- 
born at  the  time,  laid  to  his  charge,  agreed  to  recognize  his 
relationship  to  the  little  creature,  if,  on  its  commg  into  the 
world,  it  was  found  to  have  a  green  patch  over  its  eye, 
and  a  wooden  leg.  And,  in  order  to  construct  a  hypothesis 
of  progressive   degradation,  the  theorist  has  but  to  take  for 


190  PROGRESS 

granted  the  transmissioa  to  other  generations  of  defects  and 
compensating  redundanc  ies  at  once  as  extreme  and  acciden- 
tal as  the  loss  of  eyes  c;  limbs,  and  the  acquisition  of  timber 
legs  or  green  patches.  The  snake,  for  instance,  he  might  re- 
gard as  a  saurian,  that,  having  accidentally  lost  its  limbs,  ex- 
erted itself  to  such  account  throughout  a  series  of  generations, 
in  making  up  for  their  absence,  as  to  spin  out  for  itself,  by  dint 
of  writhing  and  wriggling,  rather  more  than  a  hundred  ad- 
ditional vertebrae,  and  to  alter,  for  purposes  of  greater  flexibil- 
ity, the  structure  of  all  the  rest.  And  as  fishes,  when  nearly 
stunned  by  a  blow,  swim  for  a  few  seconds  on  their  side,  he 
might  regard  the  flounders  as  a  race  of  half-stunned  fishes,  pre- 
viously degraded  by  the  misplacement  of  their  limbs,  that, 
instead  of  recovering  themselves  from  the  blow  given  to  some 
remote  parent  of  the  family,  had  expended  all  their  energies  in 
twisting  their  mouths  round  to  what  chanced  to  be  the  under 
side  on  which  they  were  laid,  and  their  eyes  to  what  chanced 
to  be  the  upper,  and  that  made  their  pectorals  serve  for  anal 
and  dorsal  fins,  and  their  anal  and  dorsal  fins  serve  for  pecto- 
rals. But  while  we  must  recognize  in  nature  certain  laws  of 
disturbance,  if  I  may  so  speak,  through  which,  within  certain 
limits,  traits  which  are  the  result  of  habit  or  circumstance  in 
the  parents  are  communicated  to  their  offspring,  we  would 
err  as  egregiously,  did  we  take  only  these  into  account,  with- 
out noting  that  infinitely  stronger  antagonist  law  of  reproduc- 
tion and  restoration  which,  by  ever  gravitating  towards  the 
original  type,  preserves  the  integrity  of  races,  as  the  astrono- 
mer would,  who,  in  constructing  his  orrery,  recognized  only 
that  law  of  propulsion  through  which  the  planets  speed 
through  the  heavens,  without  taking  into  account  that  antag- 
onist law  of  gravitation  which,  by  maintaining  them  in  their 
orbits,  insures  the  regularity  of  their  movements.     The  lav 


OF   DEGRADATION.  191 

of  restoration  would  recover  and  right  the  st  mnecl  fish  laid 
on  its  side  ;  the  law  of  reproduction  would  g[\  e  limbs  to  the 
offspring  of  the  mutilated  saurian.  We  have  evidence,  in 
the  extremeness  of  the  degradation  in  these  cases,  that  it 
cannot  be  a  degradation  hereditarily  derived  from  accident. 
Nature  is,  we  find,  active,  not  in  perpetuating  the  accidental 
wooden  legs  and  green  patches  of  ancestors  in  their  de- 
scendants, but  in  restoring  to  the  offspring  the  true  limbs 
and  eyes  which  the  parents  have  lost.  It  is,  however,  not 
with  a  theory  of  hereditary  degradation,  but  a  hypothesis  of 
gradual  development,  that  I  have  at  present  to  deal ;  and 
what  I  have  to  establish  as  proper  to  the  present  stage  of  my 
argument  is,  that  this  principle  of  degradation  really  exists, 
and  that  the  history  of  its  progress  in  creation  bears  directly 
against  the  assumption  that  the  earlier  vertebrata  were  of  a 
lower  type  than  the  vertebrata  of  the  same  ichthyic  class 
which  exist  now.* 


*  It  -will  scarce  be  urged  against  the  degradation  theory,  that 
those  races  which,  tried  by  the  tests  of  defect  or  misplacement  of 
parts,  we  deem  degraded,  are  not  less  fitted  for  carrying  on  what 
in  their  own  little  spheres  is  the  proper  business  of  life,  than  the 
non-degraded  orders  and  families.  The  objection  is,  however,  a 
possible  one,  and  one  which  a  single  remark  may  serve  to  obviate. 
It  is  certainly  true  that  the  degraded  families  are  thoroughly  fit- 
ted for  the  performance  of  all  the  work  given  them  to  do.  Tl  ey 
greatly  increase  when  placed  in  favorable  circumstances,  and,  when 
vigorous  and  thriving,  enjoy  existence.  But  then  the  same  may 
be  said  of  all  animals,  without  reference  to  their  place  in  the 
scale  ;  —  the  mollusc  is  as  thoroughly  adapted  to  its  circumstances, 
and  as  fitted  to  accomplish  the  end  proper  to  its  being,  as  the  mam- 
miferous  quadruped,  and  the  mammiferous  quadruped  as  man  him- 
self; but  the  fact  of  perfect  adaptation  in  no  degree  invalidates  the 
other  not  less  certain  fact  of  diff'erence  of  rank,  nor  proves  that  the 
mollusc  is  equal  to  the  quadruped,  or  the  quadruped  to  man.     And, 


192  PROGRESS 

The  progress  of  the  ichthyic  tail,  as  recorded  in  geologic 
history,  corresponds  with  that  of  the  ichthyic  limbs.  And 
as  in  the  existing  state  of  things  we  find  fishes  that  nearly 
represent,  in  this  respect,  all  the  great  geologic  periods,  —  I 
say  nearly^  not  fully,  for  I  am  acquainted  with  no  fish  ade- 
quately representative  of  the  period  of  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone,—  it  may  be  well  to  cast  a  glance  over  the  contemporary 
series,  as  illustrative  of  the  consecutive  one.  In  those  Placoids 
of  the  shark  family  that  to  a  large  brain  unite  homological 
symmetry  of  organization,  and  represent  the  fishes  of  the 
first  period,  we  find,  as  I  have  already  shown,  that  the  ver- 
tebra? gradually  diminish  in  the  caudal  division  of  the 
column,  until  they  terminate  in  a  point,  —  a  circumstance 
in  which  they  resemble  not  merely  the  betailed  reptiles,  but 
also  all  the  higher  mammiferous  quadrupeds,  and  even  man 
himself.  And  it  is  this  peculiarity,  stamped  upon  the  less  de- 
structible portions  of  the  framework  of  the  tail,  —  vertebrtB 
and  processes,  —  rather  than  the  one-sided  or  heterocercal 
form  of  the  surrounding  fin,  composed  of  but  a  mucoidal 
substance,  that  constitutes  its  grand  characteristic  ;  seeing 
that  in  some  Placoid  genera,  such  as  Scyllium  Stellare,  the 
terminal  portion  of  the  fin  is  scarce  less  largely  developed 
above  than  below,  and  that  in  others,  as  in  most  of  the  Ray 
family,  the  under  lobe  of  the  fin  is  wholly  wanting.  In  the 
sturgeon,  —  one  of  the  few  Ganoids  of  the  present  time,  —  we 
become  sensible  of  a  peculiar  modification  in  this  heterocer- 


of  course,  the  remark  equally  bears  on  the  reduced  as  on  the  miele- 
vated,  —  on  lowness  of  place  when  a  result  of  degradation  in  races 
pertaining  to  a  higher  division  of  animals,  as  on  lowness  of  place 
when  a  result  of  the  humble  standing  of  the  division  to  which  the 
races  belong. 


OF    DEGRADATION.  193 

:5al  type  of  tail ;  the  lower  lobe  is,  we  find,  composed,  as  in 
Spinax  and  Scyllium,  of  rays  exclusively  ;  while  through  the 
centre  of  the  upper  lobe  thei-e  runs  an  acutely  angular  patch 
of  lozenge-shaped  plates,  like  that  which  runs  through  the 
centre  of  the  double  fins  of  Dipterus  and  the  Coelacanths. 
But  while  in  the  sharks  the  gradually  diminishing  vertebrEe 
stand  out  in  bold  relief,  and  form  the  thickest  portion  of  the 
tail,  that  which  represents  them  in  the  sturgeon  (the  angular 
patch)  is  slim  and  thin,  —  slimmer  in  the  middle  than  even  at 
the  sides ;  —  in  part  a  consequence,  no  doubt,  of  the  want, 
in  this  fish,  of  solid  vertebrse,  but  a  consequence  also  of  the 
extreme  attenuation  of  the  nervous  cord,  in  its  prolongation 
into  the  lobe  of  the  fin.  Further,  the  rays  of  the  tail  — 
its  peculiarly  ichthyic  portion,  which  are  purely  mucoidal  in 
Spinax,  Scyllium,  and  Cestracion  —  have  become  osseous  in 
the  sturgeon.  The_^s/t  has  set  and  become  fixed,  as  cement 
sets  in  a  building,  or  colors  are  fixed  by  a  mordant.  And 
it  is  worthy  of  special  remark  that,  correspondent  with  the 
peculiarly  ichthyic  development  of  tail  in  this  fish,  we  find 
the  prevailing  ichthyic  displacement  of  the  fore  limbs. 
Again,  in  the  Lepidosteus,  another  of  the  true  Ganoids 
which  still  exist,  the  internal  angle  of  the  upper  lobe  of  the 
tail  wholly  disappears,  and  with  the  internal  angle  the  pro- 
longation of  the  nervous  cord.  Still,  however,  it  is  what  the 
tail  of  the  sturgeon  would  become  were  the  angular  patch  to 
be  obliterated,  and  rays  substituted  instead,  —  it  is  a  tail  set  on 
awry.  And  in  this  fish  also  we  find  the  ichthyic  displacement 
of  fore  limb.  One  step  more,  and  we  arrive  at  the  homo- 
cercai  or  equal-lobed  tail,  which  seems  to  attain  to  its 
most  extreme  type  in  those  fishes  in  which,  as  in  the  perch 
and  flounder,  the  last  vertebral  joint,  either  very  little  or  very 
abruptly  diminished  in  size,  expands  into  broad  processes 
17 


194  FBOGEESS 

without  homologue  in  the  higher  animals,  on  which  the  cau 
dal  rays  rest  as  thqir  bases.  And  in  by  much  the  largei 
proportion  of  these  fishes  all  the  four  limbs  are  slung  round 
the  neck ;  —  they  at  once  exhibit  the  homocercal  tail  in  its 
broadest  type,  and  displacement  of  limb  in  its  most  extreme 
form. 

Now,  in  tracing  the  geologic  history  of  the  ichthyic  tail, 
we  find  these  several  steps  or  gradations  from  the  heterocercal 
to  the  homocercal,  represented  by  periods  and  formations. 
The  Siluran  periods  may  be  regarded  as  representative  of  that 
true  heterocercal  tail  of  the  Placoids,  exemplified  in  Spinax, 
(page  172,  fig.  48,)  and  Cestracion,  (page  177,  fig.  49.)  The 
whole  caudal  portion  of  this  latter  animal,  commencing  imme- 
diately behind  the  ventrals,  is,  as  becomes  a  true  tail,  slim, 
when  compared  with  its  trunk ;  the  vertebrae  are  of  very 
considerable  solidity  ;  the  rays  mucoidal ;  and  where  the 
spinal  column  runs  into  the  terminal  fin,  it  takes  such  an  up- 
ward turn  as  that  which  the  horse-jockey  imparts,  by  the 
process  of  nickirig,  to  the  tails  of  the  hunter  and  the  race- 
horse. And  with  the  heterocercal  tail,  so  true  in  its  homolo- 
gies to  the  tails  of  the  higher  vertebrata,  we  find  associated, 
as  has  been  shown,  the  true  homological  position  of  the  fore 
limbs.  With  the  commencement  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone 
the  ganoidal  tail  first  presents  itself;  and  we  become  sensible 
of  a  change  in  the  structure  of  the  attached  fin,  similar  to  that 
exemplified  in  the  caudal  rays  of  the  sturgeon.  As  shown  by 
the  irregularly-angular  patch  of  scales  which  in  all  the  true 
Gcfilacanths,  and  almost  all  the  Dipterians,*  runs  through  the 


*  The  vertebral  column  in  the  genus  Diplopterus  ran,  as  in  the 
placoid  genus  Scy Ilium,  nearly  through  the  middle  of  the  caudal 
fin. 


OF    DEGRADATION. 


195 


upper  lobe  of  the  fin,  and  terminates  in  a  point,  (see  fig.  50,) 
it  must  have  oosscssed  the  gradually  diminishing  vertebrae,  or 

Eg.  60. 


lAHi  OF  OSTEOL£FIS. 

a  diminishing  spinal  cord,  their  analogue ;  but  the  rays,  fairly 
set,  as  their  state  of  keeping  in  the  rocks  certify,  exist  as  nar- 
row oblong  plates  of  solid  bone  ;  and  their  anterior  edges  are 
strengthened  by  a  line  of  osseous  defences,  that  pass  from 
scales  into  rays.  And  in  harmonious  accompaniment  with 
this  fairly  stereotyped  edition  of  the  ichthyic  tail,  we  find,  in 
the  fishes  in  which  it  appears,  the  first  instance  of  displace- 
ment of  limb,  —  the  bases  of  the  pectorals  being  removed  from 
their  original  position,  and  stuck  on  to  the  nape  of  the  neck. 
It  may  be  remarked,  in  passing,  that  in  the  tails  of  two  ganoid- 
al  genera  of  this  period,  —  the  Coccosteus  and  Pterichihys, — 
the  analogies  traceable  lie  rather  in  the  direction  of  the  tails 
of  the  Rays  than  in  those  of  the  Sharks ;  and  that  one  of 
these,  the  Coccosteus,  seems,  as  has  been  already  intimated, 
to  have  had  no  pectorals,  while  it  is  doubtful  whether  in  the 
Pterichlhij'i  the  pectorals  were  not  attached  to  the  shoulder, 
instead  o:'  the  head.  In  the  Carboniferous  and  Permian 
systems  there  occur,  especially  among  the  numerous  species 
of  the  genus  Palcconiscus,  tails  of  the  type  exemplified  by  the 


196  PROGRESS 

internal  angle  of  the  tail  of  the  sturgeon  :  the  lozenge -shaped 
scales  run  in  acutely  angular  patches  through  their  upper  lobes  ; 
but  such  is  their  extreme  flatness,  as  shown  by  the  disposition 
of  the  enamelled  covering,  that  it  appears  exceedingly  doubt- 
ful whether  any  vertebral  column  ran  beneath  ;  —  they  seem 
but  to  have  covered  greatly  diminished  prolongations  of 
the  spinal  cord.      In  the  base  of    the    Secondary    division, 

—  another   long  stage  towards  the   existing  state  of  things, 

—  we  find,  with  the  homocercal  tail,  which  now  r«ppears 
for  the  first  time,  numerous  tails  like  that  of  the  L^iaos- 
tevs,  (fig.  51,)   of  an  intermediate  type;  —  they  ar**  iati*er 

Fisr.  51. 


TAIL  OF   LEPIDOSTEUS   OSSEUS. 


tails  set  on  awry  than  truly  heterocercal.  The  diminishes' 
cord  has  disappeared  from  among  the  fin  rays.  In  the  nu 
merous  Lepidoid  genus,  and  the  genera  Semionotus  and  Tetra 
gonolepis,  —  all  ganoidal  fishes  of  the  Secondary  period 
—  this  intermediate  style  is  very  marked  ;  while  in  their 
contemporaries  of  the  genera  Urceus,  Microdon,  and  PycnO' 
dus,  we  find  the  earliest  examples  of  true  homocercal  tails. 
And  in  the  Ctenoids  and  Cycloids  of  the  Chalk  the  homo- 
cercal tail  receives  its  fullest  development.  It  finds  bases  for 
its  rays  in  broad  non-homological  processes,  that  spread  out 


OF    DEGRADATION. 


197 


behind  abruptly-terminating  vertebrae,  (fig.  52,)  in  the  same 
Fig.  52. 


TAIL  OF  FEECH 


period  in  which,  by  a  strange  process  of  degradation,  the 
four  ichthyic  limbs  are  first  gathered  into  a  cluster,  and  hung 
about  the  neck.* 


*  In  the  foUo'wing  diagram  a  few  simple  lines  serve  to  exhibit 
the  progress  of  degradation.  Fig.  a  represents  the  symmetrical 
Placoids  of  the  Silurian  period,  consisting  of  head,  neck,  body,  tail, 
fore  limbs  and  hinder  limbs ;  fig.  6  represents  those  heterocercal  Ga 
aoids  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  Coal  Measures,  and  Permian  System, 
n  Avhich  the  neck  is  extinguished,  and  the  fore  limbs  stuck  on  to  the 
>cciput ;  fig.  c,  those  homocercal  Ganoids  of  the  Trias  Lias,  Oolite,  and 


Silurian.     Old  Red,  &c.    Lias,  &c. 


Cretaceous. 


G 


.a 


o 


^■■■■-'■■■9- 


abed 
Placoid.  Het.  Ganoid.  Hem.  Ganoid.  Ctenoid. 

17* 


Platessa. 


198  PROGRESS 

I  am  aware,  that  by  some  very  distinguished  comparative 
anatomists,  among  the  rest  Professor  Owen,  the  attachment, 
so  common  among  fishes,  of  the  scapular  arch  and  the  fore 
limbs  to  the  occipital  bone,  is  regarded,  not  as  a  displacement, 
but  as  a  normal  and  primary  condition  of  the  parts.  Recog- 
nizing in  the  scapular  bones  the  ribs  of  the  occipital  centrum^ 
the  anatomists  of  this  school  of  course  consider  them,  when 
found  articulated  to  the  occiput,  as  in  their  proper  and  origi- 
nal place,  and  as  in  a  state  of  natural  dislocation  when  re- 
moved, as  in  all  the  reptiles,  birds,  and  mammals,  farther 
down.  We  find  Professor  Oken  borrowing  support  to  his  hy- 
pothesis from  this  view.  The  limbs,  he  tells  us,  are  simply 
ribs,  that  in  the  course  of  ages  have  been  set  free,  and  have 
become  by  development  what  they  now  are.  And  it  is  un 
questionably  a  curious  and  interesting  fact,  that  there  are  cer- 
tain animals,  such  as  the  crocodile,  in  which  every  centrum  of 
the  vertebral  column,  and  of  every  vertebra  of  the  head,  has 
its  ribs  or  rib-like  appendages,  with  the  exception  of  the  oc- 
cipital centrum.  And  it  is  another  equally  curious  fact,  that 
there  is  another  certain  class  of  animals,  such  as  the  osseous 
horn-covered  fishes,  with  the  Sturionidae,  Salamandroidei,and  at 
least  one  genus  among  the  Placoids,  (the  Chimseroidei,)  in  which 
this  occipital  centrum  bears  as  its  ribs  the  scapular  bones, 
with  their  appendages  the  fore  limbs.  It  is  the  centrum  without 
ribs  that  is  selected  in  these  animals  as  the  centriim  to  which  the 


"VVcalden,  -whose  tails  spread  out  into  broad  terminal  processes,  with- 
out homologue  in  the  higher  animals  ;  fig.  d,  those  Acanthopterygii 
of  the  Chalk  that,  in  addition  to  the  non-homological  processes, 
have  both  fore  limbs  and  hinder  Hmbs  stuck  round  the  head ;  while 
tig.  e  represents  the  asymmetrical  Platessa,  of  the  same  period,  with 
one  of  its  eyes  in  thf  middle  of  its  head,  and  the  other  thrust  out  to 
the  side. 


OF    DEGRADATION.  199 

scapular  ribs  should  be  attached.  Be  it  remembered,  how- 
ever, that  while  it  is  unquestionably  the  part  of  the  compara- 
tive anatomist  to  determine  the  relations  and  homologies  of 
those  parts  of  which  all  animals  are  composed,  and  to  inter- 
pret the  significancy  in  the  scale  of  being  of  the  various 
modes  and  forms  in  which  they  exist,  it  is  as  unquestionably 
the  part  of  the  geologist  to  declare  their  history,  and  the 
order  of  their  succession  in  time.  The  questions  which  fall 
to  be  determined  by  the  geologist  and  anatomist  are  entirely 
different.  It  is  the  function  of  the  anatomist  to  decide  re- 
garding the  high  and  the  low,  the  typical  and  the  aberrant ; 
and  so,  beginning  at  what  is  lowest  or  highest  in  the  scale,  or 
least  or  most  symmetrical  in  type,  he  passes  through  the  in- 
termediate forms  to  the  opposite  extreme  :  and  such  is  the 
order  natural  and  proper  to  his  science.  It  is  the  vocation  of 
the  geologist,  on  the  other  hand,  to  decide  regarding  the  early 
and  the  late.  It  is  with  time,  not  with  rank,  that  he  has  tc 
deal.  Nor  is  it  in  the  least  surprising  that  he  should  seem  at 
issue  with  the  comparative  anatomist,  when,  in  classifying  his 
groupes  of  organized  being  according  to  the  periods  of  their 
appearance,  there  is  an  order  of  arrangement  forced  upon 
him,  different  from  that  which,  on  an  entirely  different  prin- 
ciple, the  anatomist  pursues.  Nor  can  there  be  a  better 
illustration  of  a  collision  of  this  kind,  than  the  one  furnished 
by  the  case  in  point.  That  peculiarity  of  structure  which,  as 
the  lowest  in  the  vertebral  skeleton,  is  to  the  comparative 
anatomist  the  primary  and  original  one,  and  which,  as  such, 
furnishes  him  with  his  starting  point,  is  to  the  geologist  not 
primary,  but  secondary,  simply  because  it  was  not  primary, 
but  secondary,  in  the  order  of  its  occurrence.  It  belongs, 
so  far  as  we  yet  know,  not  to  the  Jirst  period  of  verte- 
brate existence,  but  to  the  second ;  and  appeal's  in  geologic 


200  PROGRESS 

history  as  does  that  savage  state  which  certain  philosophers 
have  deemed  the  original  condition  of  the  human  species,  in 
the  history  of  civilization,  when  read  by  the  light  of  the  Re- 
vealed Record,  under  the  shadow  of  those  gigantic  ruins  of 
the  East  that  date  only  a  few  centuries  after  the  Flood.  It  is 
found  to  be  a  degradation  first  introduced  during  the  lapse  of 
an  intermediate  age,  —  not  the  normal  condition  which  ob- 
tained during  the  long  cycles  of  the  primal  one.  It  indicates,  not 
the  starting  point  from  which  the  race  of  creation  began,  but  the 
stage  of  retrogradation  beyond  it  at  which  the  pilgrims  who  set 
out  in  a  direction  opposite  to  that  of  the  goal  first  arrived.* 

*  I  would,  however,  respectfully  suggest,  that  that  theory  of  cer- 
ebral vertebrae,  on  which,  in  this  question,  the  comparative  anato- 
mists proceed  as  their  principle,  and  which  finds  as  little  support  in 
the  geologic  record  from  the  actual  history  of  the  fore  limbs  as  from 
the  actual  history  of  the  bones  of  the  cranium,  may  be  more  inge- 
nious than  sound.  It  is  a  shrewd  circumstance,  that  the  rocks  refuse 
to  testify  in  its  favor.  Agassiz,  I  find,  decides  against  it  on  other 
than  geological  grounds ;  and  his  conclusion  is  certainly  rendered 
not  the  less  worthy  of  careful  consideration  by  the  fact  that,  yielding 
to  the  force  of  evidence,  his  views  on  the  subject  underwent  a  thor- 
ough change.  He  had  first  held,  and  then  rejected  it.  "I  have 
shared,"  he  says,  "  with  a  multitude  of  other  naturalists,  the  opinion 
which  regards  the  cranium  as  composed  of  vertebrae ;  and  I  am  con- 
sequently in  some  degree  called  upon  to  point  out  the  motives  which 
have  induced  me  to  reject  it." 

"  M.  Oken,"  he  continues,  "  was  the  first  to  assign  this  signification 
to  the  bones  of  the  cranium.  The  new  doctrine  he  expounded  was 
received  in  Germany  with  great  enthusiasm  by  the  school  of  the 
philosophers  of  nature.  The  author  conceived  the  cranium  to  con- 
sist of  three  vertebrae,  and  the  basal  occipital,  the  sphenoid,  and  the 
ethmoid,  were  regarded  as  the  central  parts  of  these  cranial  vertebrae. 
On  these  alleged  bodies  of  vertebrae,  the  arches  enveloping  the  cen- 
tral parts  of  the  nervous  system  were  raised,  while  on  the  opposite 
side  were  attached  the  inferior  pieces,  which  went  to  form  the  vege- 
tative arch  destined  to  embrace  the  intestinal  canal  and  the  large 
vessels.      It  would  be  too  tedious  to  enumerate  in  this  place  the 


OF   DEGRADATION.  201 

This  fact  of  aegradation,  strangely  indicated  in  geologic 
histoiy,  with  reference  to  all  the  greater  divisions  of  the 
animal  kingdom,  has  often  appeared  to  me  a  surpassingly 
wonderful  one.  We  can  see  but  imperfectly,  in  those  twi- 
light depths  to  which  all  such  subjects  necessarily  belong  ; 
and  yet  at  times  enough  does  appear  to  show  us  what  a 
very  superficial  thing  infidelity  may  be.  The  general  ad- 
vance in  creation  has  been  incalculably  great.  The  lower 
divisions  of  the  vertebrata  preceded  the  higher;  —  the  fish 

changes  which  each  author  introduced,  in  order  to  modify  this  mat- 
ter so  as  to  make  it  suit  his  own  views.  Some  went  the  length  of 
affirming  that  the  vertebrae  of  the  head  were  as  complete  as  those  of 
the  trunk ;  and,  by  means  of  various  dismemberments,  separations, 
and  combinations,  all  the  forms  of  the  cranium  were  referred  to  the 
vertebral,  by  admitting  that  the  number  of  pieces  was  invariably 
fixed  in  every  head,  and  that  all  the  vertebrata,  whatever  might  be 
their  organization  in  other  respects,  had  in  their  heads  the  same 
number  of  points  of  ossification.  At  a  later  period,  what  was  erro- 
neous in  this  manner  of  regarding  the  subject  was  detected ;  but 
the  idea  of  the  vertebral  composition  of  the  head  was  still  retained. 
It  was  admitted  as  a  general  law,  that  the  cranium  was  composed  of 
three  primitive  vertebrae,  as  the  embryo  is  of  three  blastodermic  leaf- 
lets ;  but  that  these  vertebra;,  like  the  leaflets,  existed  only  ideally, 
and  that  their  presence,  although  easily  demonstrated  in  certain  cases, 
could  only  be  slightly  traced,  and  with  the  greatest  difficult}',  in 
other  instances.  The  notion  thus  laid  down  of  the  virtual  existence 
of  cranial  vertebrae  did  not  encounter  very  great  opposition ;  it  could 
not  be  denied  that  there  was  a  certain  general  resemblance  between 
the  osseous  case  of  the  brain  and  the  rachidian  canal ;  the  occipital, 
in  particular,  had  all  the  characteristic  features  of  a  vertebra.  But 
whenever  an  attempt  was  made  to  push  the  analogy  further,  and  to 
determine  rigorously  the  anterior  vertebrae  of  the  cranium,  the  ob- 
server found  himself  arrested  by  insurmountable  obstacles,  and  he 
was  obliged  alv/ays  to  revert  to  the  virtual  existence. 

"  In  order  to  explain  my  idea  cltarly,  let  me  have  recourse  to  an 
example.  It  is  certain  that  organized  bodies  are  sometimes  endowed 
with  virtual  qualities,  which,  at  a  certain  period  of  the  being's  life, 
elude  diss3ction,  and  all  ova  means  of  investigation.    It  is  thus,  that 


202  PROGRESS 

preceded  the  reptile,  the  reptile  preceded  the  bird,  the  bird 
preceded  the  mammiferous  quadruped,  and  the  mammiferous 
rjuadruped  preceded  man.  And  yet,  is  there  one  of  these 
great  divisions  in  which,  in  at  least  some  prominent  feature, 
the  present,  through  this  mysterious  element  of  degradation, 
is  not  inferior  to  the  past  ?  There  was  a  time  in  which  the 
ichthyic  form  constituted  the  highest  example  of  life  ;  but 
he  seas  during  that  period  did  not  swarm  with  fish  of  the 
degraded  type.     There  was,  in  like  manner,  a  time  when  all 

at  the  moment  of  their  origin,  the  eggs  of  all  animals  have  such  a 
resemblance  to  each  other,  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  distinguish, 
even  by  the  aid  of  the  most  powerful  microscope,  the  ovarial  egg  of 
a  craw-fish,  for  example,  from  that  of  true  fish.  And  yet  who  would 
deny  that  beings  in  every  respect  different  from  each  other  exist  in 
these  eggs  ?  It  is  precisely  because  the  diff'erence  manifests  itself  at 
a  later  period,  in  proportion  as  the  embryo  develops  itself,  that  we 
are  authorized  to  conclude,  that,  even  from  the  earliest  period,  the 
eggs  were  diff'crent,  —  that  each  had  virtual  qualities  proper  to  itself, 
although  they  could  not  be  discovered  by  our  senses.  If,  on  the  con- 
trary, any  one  should  find  two  eggs  perfectly  alike,  and  should 
observe  two  beings  perfectly  identical  issue  from  them,  he  would 
greatl}'  err  if  he  ascribed  to  these  eggs  diff"erent  virtual  qualities.  It 
is  therefore  necessary,  in  order  to  be  in  a  condition  to  suppose  that 
virtual  properties  peculiar  to  it  are  concealed  in  an  animal,  that  these 
properties  should  manifest  themselves  once,  in  some  phase  or  other 
of  its  development.  Now,  applying  this  principle  to  the  theory  of 
cranial  vertebraj,  we  should  say,  that  if  these  vertebra;  virtually  exist 
in  the  adult,  they  must  needs  show  themselves  in  reality,  at  a  certain 
perioi  of  development.  If,  on  the  contrary,  they  are  found  neither 
in  the  embryo  nor  the  adult,  I  am  of  opinion  that  we  are  entitled 
likewise  to  dispute  their  virtual  existence. 

"  Here,  however,  an  objection  may  be  made  to  me,  drawn  from 
the  physiological  value  of  the  vertebrae,  the  function  of  which,  as  is 
well  known,  is,  on  the  one  hand,  to  furnish  a  solid  support  to  the 
muscular  contractions  which  determine  the  movements  of  the  trunk, 
and,  on  the  other,  to  protect  the  centres  of  the  nervous  system,  by 
forming  a  more  or  less  solid  case  completely  around  them.  The 
bodies  of  the  vertebrse  are  particularly  destined  to  the  first  of  these 


OF   DEGRADATION.  203 

the  carnivora  and  all  the  herbivorous  quadrupeds  were  repre- 
sented by  reptiles;  but  there  are  no  such  magnificent  reptiles 
on  the  earth  now  as  reigned  over  it  then.  There  was  an 
after  time,  when  birds  seem  to  have  been  the  sole  represen- 
tatives of  the  warm-blooded  animals ;  but  we  find,  from  the 
prints  of  their  feet  left  in  sandstone,  that  the  tallest  men 
might  have 

"  Walked  inder  their  huge  legs,  and  peeped  about." 
Further,  there  was  an  age  when  the  quadrupedal  mammals 

offices ;  the  neurapophyses  to  the  second.  "What  can  be  more  natu- 
ral than  to  admit,  from  the  consideration  of  this,  that  in  the  head, 
the  bodies  of  the  vertebraj  diminish  in  proportion  as  the  moving 
function  becomes  lost,  while  the  neurapophyses  are  considerably  de- 
veloped for  protecting  the  brain,  the  volume  of  which  is  very  consid- 
erable, when  compared  with  that  of  the  spinal  marrow  ?  Have  we 
not  an  example  of  this  fact  in  the  vertebrae  of  the  tail,  where  the 
neurapophyses  become  completely  obliterated,  and  a  simple  cylin- 
drical body  alone  remains  ?  Now,  may  it  not  be  the  case,  that  in  the 
head,  the  bodies  of  the  vertebrse  have  disappeared  ;  and  that,  in  con- 
sequence, there  is  a  prolongation  of  the  cord  only  as  far  as  the 
moving  functions  of  the  vertebrae  extend  ?  There  is  some  truth  in 
this  argument,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  refute  it  a  priori.  But  it 
loses  all  its  force  the  moment  that  we  enter  upon  a  detailed  examin- 
ation of  the  bones  of  the  head.  Thus,  what  would  we  call,  accord- 
ing to  this  hypothesis,  the  principal  sphenoid,  the  great  wings  of  the 
sphenoid,  and  the  ethmoid,  which  form  the  floor  of  the  cerebral  cav- 
ity ?  It  may  be  said  they  are  apophyses.  But  the  apophyses  pro- 
tect the  nervous  centres  only  on  the  side  and  above.  It  may  be 
said  that  they  are  the  bodies  of  the  vertebrae.  But  they  are  formed 
without  the  concurrence  of  the  dorsal  cord  ;  they  cannot,  therefore, 
be  the  bodies  of  the  vertebrae.  It  must  therefore  be  allowed,  that 
these  bones  at  least  do  not  enter  into  the  vertebral  type ;  that  they 
are  in  some  measure  peculiar.  And  if  this  be  the  case  with  them, 
why  may  not  the  other  protective  plates  be  equally  independent  of 
the  vertebral  type ;  the  more  so,  because  the  relations  of  the  fron- 
tals  and  parietals  vary  so  much,  that  it  would  be  almost  impossible 
to  assign  to  them  a  constant  place  ?  " 


204  PROGRESS  OF  DEGRABATION. 

were  the  magnates  of  creation  ;  but  it  was  an  age  in  which 
the  sagacious  elephant,  now  extinct,  save  in  the  comparatively 
small  Asiatic  and  African  circles,  and  restricted  to  two 
species,  was  the  inhabitant  of  every  country  of  the  Old 
World,  from  its  southern  extremity  to  the  frozen  shores  of 
the  northern  ocean  ;  and  when  vast  herds  of  a  closely  allied 
and  equally  colossal  genus  occupied  its  place  in  the  New. 
And  now,  in  the  times  of  the  high-placed  human  dynasty,  — 
of  those  formally  delegated  monarchs  of  creation,  whose 
nature  it  is  to  look  behind  them  upon  the  past,  and  before 
them,  with  mingled  fear  and  hope,  upon  the  future,  —  do  we 
not  as  certainly  see  the  elements  of  a  state  of  ever-sinking 
degradation,  which  is  to  exist  for  ever,  as  of  a  state  of  ever- 
increasing  perfectibility,  to  which  there  is  to  be  no  end  ? 
Nay,  of  a  higher  race,  of  which  we  know  but  little,  this 
much  we  at  least  know,  that  they  long  since  separated  into 
two  great  classes,  —  that  of  the  "  elect  angels,"  and  of  "  an- 
gels that  kept  not  their  first  estate." 


THE    SILURIAN    MOLLUSCS.  205 


EVIDENCE  OF  THE  SILUMAN  MOLLUSCS  —OF  THE 
FOSSIL  FLORA. 

ANCIENT   TREE. 


After  dwelling  at  such  length  on  the  earlier  fishes,  it  may 
seem  scarce  necessary  toadvert  to  their  lower  contemporaries 
the  mollusca,  —  that  great  division  of  the  animal  kingdom 
which  Cuvier  places  second  in  the  descending  order,  in  his 
survey  of  the  entire  series,  and  first  among  the  inverte- 
brates ;  and  which  Oken  regards  as  the  division  out  of  which 
•.he  immediately  preceding  class  of  the  vertebral  animals  have 
been  developed.  "  The  fish,"  he  says,  "  is  to  be  viewed  as  a 
mussel,  from  between  whose  shells  a  monstrous  abdomen 
has  grown  out."  There  is,  however,  a  peculiarity  in  the  mol- 
luscan  group  of  the  Silurian  system,  to  which  I  must  be  per- 
mitted briefly  to  refer,  as,  to  employ  the  figure  of  Sterne,  it 
presents  "two  handles"  of  an  essentially  different  kind,  and 
as  in  all  such  two-handled  cases,  the  mere  special  pleader  is 
sure  to  avail  himself  of  only  the  handle  which  best  suits  his 
purpose  for  the  time. 

Cuvier's  first  and  highest  class  of  the  mollusca  is  formed 

of  what  are  termed  the  Cephalopods,  —  a  class  of  creatures 

possessed  of  great  freedom  of  motion :  they  can  walk,  swim, 

and  seize  their  prey;  they  have  what  even  the  lowest  fishes, 

18 


206  EVIDENCE    OF 

such  as  the  lancelet,  want,  —  a  brain  enclosed  in  a  cartiiagi. 
nous  cavity  in  the  head,  and  perfectly  formed  orgaus  of  sight ; 
they  possess,  too,  what  is  found  in  no  other  mollusc,  —  organs 
of  hearing  ;  and  in  sagacity  and  activity  they  prove  more  than 
matches  for  the  smaller  fishes,  many  of  which  they  overmas- 
ter and  devour.     With   this  highest  class  there  contrasts  an 
exceedingly  low  molluscous  class  at  the  bottom  of  the  scale, 
or,  at  least,  at  what  is  now  the  bottom  of  the  scale  ;  for  they 
constitute  Cuvier's  Jifth  class  ;  while  his  sixth  and  last,  the  Cir- 
rhopodes,  has  been  since  withdrawn  from  the  molluscs  alto- 
gether, and  placed  in  a  different  division  of  the  animal  king- 
dom.   And  this  low  class,  the  Brachiopods,  are  creatures  that, 
living  in  bivalve  shells,  unfurnished  with  spring  hinges  to  throw 
them  open,  and  always  fast  anchored  to  the  same  spot,  can  but 
thrust  forth,  through  the  interstitial   chinks  of  their  prison- 
houses,  spiral  arms,  covered  with  cilia,  and  winnow  the  water 
for  a  living.     Now,  it  so  happens  that  the  moUuscan  group  of 
the  Silurian  system  is  composed  chiefly  of  these  two  extreme 
classes.     It  contains  some  of  the  other  forms  ;  but  they  are 
few  in  number,  and  give  no  character  to  the  rocks  in  which 
they  occur.     There  was  nothing  by  which  I  was  more  im- 
pressed, in  a  visit  to  a  Silurian  region,  than  that  in  its  an- 
cient graveyards,  as  in  those  of  the  present  day,  though  in 
a  different  sense,  the  high  and  the  low  should  so  invariably 
meet  together.     It  is,  however,  not  impossible  that,  in  even 
the  present  state  of  things,  a  similar  union  of  the  extreme 
forms  of  the  marine  mollusca  may  be  taking  place  in  deep- 
sea  deposits.     Most  of  the  intermediate  forms  provided  with 
shells  capable  of  preservation,  such  as  the  shelled  Gastero- 
poda and  the  Conchifers,  are  either  littoral,  or  restricted  to 
comparatively   small  depths  ;    whereas   the  Brachiopoda  are 
deep-sea  shells  ;  and  the  Cephalopoda  may  be  found  voyaging 


THE    SILTTEIAN   MOLLUSCS.  207 

far  from  land,  in  the  upper  strata  of  the  sea  above  them.  Even 
in  t.ie  seas  that  surround  our  ow^n  island ,  the  Brachiopodous  mol- 
luscs—  terebratula  and  crania  —  have  been  found,  ever  since 
deep-sea  dredging  became  common,  to  be  not  very  rare  shells  ; 
and  in  the  Mediterranean,  where  they  are  less  rare  still, 
fleets  of  Argonauts,  the  representatives  of  a  highly  organized 
family  of  the  Cephalopods,  to  which  it  is  now  believed  the 
Bellerophon  of  the  Palaeozoic  rocks  belonged,  may  be  seen 
skimming  along  the  surface,  with  sail  and  oar,  high  over  the 
profound  depths  in  which  they  lie.  And,  of  course,  when 
death  comes,  that  comes  to  high  and  low,  the  remains  of  both 
Argonauts  and  Brachiopods  must  lie  together  at  the  bottom,  in 
beds  almost  totally  devoid  of  the  intermediate  forms. 

Now,  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges,"  in  maintaining  his 
hypothesis,  suspends  it  on  the  handle  furnished  him  by  the 
immense  abundance  of  the  Silurian  Brachiopods.  The  Silu- 
rian period,  he  says,  exhibits  "  a  scanty  and  most  defective 
development  of  life  ;  so  much  so,  that  Mr.  Lyell  calls  it,  par 
excellence,  the  age  of  Brachiopods,  with  reference  to  the  by 
no  means  exalted  bivalve  shell-fish  which  forms  its  pre. 
dominant  class.  Such  being  the  actual  state  of  the  case,  I 
must  persist  in  describing  even  the  fauna  of  this  age,  which 
we  now  know  was  not  the  first,  as,  generally  speaking,  such 
a  humble  exhibition  of  the  animal  kingdom  as  we  might  ex- 
pect, upon  the  development  theory,  to  find  at  an  early  stage 
of  the  history  of  organization."  The  reader  will  at  once  dis- 
cern the  fallacy  here.  The  Silurian  period  was  peculiarly 
an  age  of  Brachiopods,  for  in  no  other  period  were  Brachio- 
pods so  numerous,  specifically  or  individually,  or  of  such  size 
or  importance ;  whereas  it  was  not  so  peculiarly  an  age  of 
Cephalopods,  for  these  we  find  introduced  in  still  greater  num- 
bers during  the  Liasic  and  Oolitic  periods.     In  1848,  when 


208  EVIDENCE    OP 

P.'ofessor  Edward  Forbes  edited  the  Palseontological  map  of 
Britain  and  Ireland,  which  forms  one  of  the  very  admirable 
series  of  "  Johnstone's  Physical  Atlas,"  the  Cephalopods  of 
the  Silurian  rocks  of  England  and  Wales  were  estimated  at 
forty-eight  species,  and  the  Brachiopods  at  one  hundred  and 
fifty;  whereas  at  the  same  date  there  were  two  hundred 
and  five  Cephalopods  of  the  Oolitic  formations  enumerated, 
and  but  fifty-four  Brachiopods.  It  is  the  molluscs  of  the  infe- 
rior, not  thos3  of  the  superior  class,  that  constitute  (with  their 
contemporaries  the  Trilobites)  the  characteristic  fossils  of  the 
Silurian  rocks ;  and  hence  the  propriety  of  the  distinctive 
name  suggested  by  Sir  Charles  Lyell.  But  in  the  develop- 
ment question,  what  we  have  specially  to  consider  is,  not  the 
numbers  of  the  low,  but  the  standing  of  the  high.  A  country 
may  be  distinctively  a  country  of  flocks  ana  herds,  or  a  country 
of  the  carnivorous  mammalia,  or,  like  New  South  Wales  or 
the  Galapagos,  a  country  of  marsupial  animals  or  of  reptiles. 
Its  human  inhabitants  may  be  merely  a  few  hunters  or  shep- 
herds, too  inconsiderable  in  numbers,  and  too  much  like 
their  brethren  elsewhere,  to  give  it  any  peculiar  standing  as 
a  home  of  men.  But  in  estimating  the  highest  point  in  the 
scale  to  which  the  animal  kingdom  has  attained  within  its 
limits,  it  is  of  its  few  men,  not  of  its  many  beasts,  that  we 
must  take  note.  And  the  point  to  be  specially  decided  re- 
garding the  organisms  of  the  Silurian  system,  in  this  ques- 
tion, is,  not  the  proportion  in  number  which  the  lower  forms 
bore  to  the  higher,  but  the  exact  rank  which  the  higher  bore 
in  the  scale  of  existence.  Did  the  system  furnish  but  a 
single  Cephalopod  or  a  single  fish,  we  would  yet  have  as 
certainly  to  determine  that  the  chain  of  being  reached  as  high 
RS  the  Cephalopod  or  the  fish,  as  if  the  remains  of  these  crea- 
urei^   constituted  its  most   abundant  fossils.     The  cham  of 


THE    SILURIAN    MOLLUSCS.  209 

animal  life  reached  quite  as  high  on  the  evening  of  the  sixth 
day  of  creation,  when  the  human  family  was  restricted  to  a 
single  pair,  as  it  does  now,  when  our  statists  reckon  up  by 
millions  the  inhabitants  of  the  greater  capitals  of  the  world  ; 
and  the  special  pleader  who,  in  asserting  the  contrary,  would 
insist  on  determining  the  point,  not  by  the  rank  of  the  men 
of  Eden,  but  by  the  number  of  minnows  or  sticklebacks  that 
swarmed  in  its  rivers,  might  be  perhaps  deemed  ingenious  in 
his  expedients,  but  certainly  not  very  judicious  in  the  use  of 
them.  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  however,  that  the  Brachiopods 
of  those  Palaeozoic  periods  in  which  the  group  occupied  such 
large  space  in  creation,  consisted  of  greatly  larger  and  more 
important  animals  than  any  which  it  contains  in  the  present 
day.  It  has  yielded  to  what  geological  history  shows  to  be 
the  common  fate,  and  sunk  into  a  state  of  degradation  and 
decline. 

The  geological  history  of  the  vegetable,  like  that  of  the 
animal  kingdom,  has  been  pressed  into  the  service  of  the 
development  hypothesis ;  and  certainly  their  respective 
courses,  both  in  actual  arrangement  and  in  their  relation  to 
human  knowledge,  seem  wonderfully  alike.  It  is  not  much 
more  than  twenty  years  since  it  was  held  that  no  exogenous 
plant  existed  during  the  Carboniferous  period.  The  frequent 
occurrence  of  Coniferse  in  the  Secondary  deposits  had  been 
conclusively  determined  from  numerous  specimens ;  but, 
founding  on  what  seemed  a  large  amount  of  negative  evi- 
dence, it  was  concluded  that,  previous  to  the  Liasic  age, 
nature  had  failed  to  achieve  a  tree,  and  that  the  rich  vege- 
tation of  the  Coal  Measures  had  been  exalusively  composed 
of  magnificent  immaturities  of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  — 
of  gigantic  ferns  and  club-mosses,  thut  attained  to  the  size  of 
forest  trees,  and  of  thickets  of  the  swamp-loving  horsetail 
18* 


210  EVIDENCE    OF 

family  of  plants,  that  well  nigh  rivalled  ir.  height  those  for- 
ests of  masts  whici  darken  the  rivers  of  our  great  commercial 
cities.  Such  was  the  viev/  promulgated  by  M.  Adolphe 
Brongniart;  and  it  maybe  well  to  remark  that,  so  far  as  the 
evidence  on  which  it  was  based  was  positive,  the  view  was 
sound.  It  is  a  fact,  that  inferior  orders  of  plants  were  de- 
veloped in  those  ages  in  a  style  which,  in  their  present  state 
of  degradation,  they  never  exemplify :  they  took  their  place, 
not,  as  now,  among  the  pigmies  and  abortions  of  creation,  but 
among  its  tallest  and  goodliest  productions.  It  is,  however, 
not  a  fact  that  they  were  the  highest  vegetable  forms  of  their 
time.  True  exogenous  trees  also  existed  in  great  numbers 
and  of  vast  size.  In  various  localities  in  the  coal  fields 
of  both  England  and  Scotland,  —  such  as  Lennel  Braes  and 
Allan  Bank  in  Berwickshire,  High-Heworth,  Fellon,  Gates- 
head, and  Wideopen  near  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  and  in 
quarries  to  the  west  of  the  city  of  Durham,  —  the  most 
abundant  fossils  of  the  system  are  its  true  woods.  In  the 
quarry  of  Craigleith,  near  Edinburgh,  three  huge  trunks  have 
been  laid  open  during  the  last  twenty  years,  within  the  space 
of  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  and  two  equally  massy 
trunks,  within  half  that  space,  in  the  neighboring  quarry  of 
Granton,  all  low  in  the  Coal  Measures.  They  lie  diagonally 
athwart  the  strata,  —  at  an  angle  of  about  thirty,  —  with  the 
nether  and  weightier  portion  of  their  boles  below,  like  snags 
in  the  Mississippi ;  and  we  infer,  from  their  general  direction, 
that  the  stream  to  which  they  reclined  must  have  flowed  from 
nearly  north-east  to  south-west.  The  current  was  probably 
that  of  a  noble  river,  which  reflected  on  its  broad  bosom  the 
shadow  of  many  a  stately  tree.  With  the  exception  of  one 
of  the  Granton  specimens,  which  still  retains  its  strong-kneed 
roots,  they  are  all  msre  portions  of  trees,  rounded  at  both 


THE   FOSSIL    FLORA.  211 

ends,  as  if  by  attrition  or  decay ;  and  yet  one  of  these  p'or- 
tions  meisures  about  six  feet  in  diameter  by  sixty-one  feet  m 
length  another  four  feet  in  diameter  by  seventy  feet  in 
length;  and  the  others,  tf  various  thicltness,  but  all  bulky 
enough  to  equal  the  masts  of  large  vessels,  range  in  length 
from  thirty-six  to  forty-seven  feet.  It  seems  strange  to  one  who 
derives  his  supply  of  domestic  fuel  from  the  Dalkeith  and 
Falkirk  coal-fields,  that  the  Carboniferous  flora  could  ever  have 
been  described  as  devoid  of  trees.  I  can  scarce  take  up  a  piece 
of  coal  from  beside  my  study  fire,  without  detecting  in  it  frag- 
ments of  carbonized  wood,  which  almost  always  exhibit  the 
characteristic  longitudinal  fibres,  and  not  unfrequently  the 
medullary  rays.  Even  the  trap-rocks  of  the  district  enclose, 
in  some  instances,  their  masses  of  lignite,  which  present  in 
their  transverse  sections,  when  cut  by  the  lapidary,  the  net- 
like reticulations  of  the  coniferse.  The  fossil  botanist,  who 
devoted  himself  chiefly  to  the  study  of  microscopic  structure, 
would  have  to  decide,  from  the  facts  of  the  case,  not  that 
trees  were  absent  during  the  Carboniferous  period,  but  that, 
in  consequence  of  their  having  been  present  in  amazing 
numbers,  their  remains  had  entered  more  palpably  and  exten- 
sively into  the  composition  of  coal  than  those  of  any  other 
vegetable.*     So  far  as  is  yet  known,  they  all  belonged  to  the 


*  It  is  stated  by  Mr.  Witham,  that,  "  except  in  a  few  instances,  he 
had  ineffectually  tried,  with  the  aid  of  the  microscope,  to  obtain  some 
insight  into  the  structure  of  coal.  Owing,"  he  adds,  "  to  its  great 
opacity,  which  is  probablj'  due  to  mechanical  pressure,  the  action  of 
chemical  affinity,  and  the  percolation  of  acidulous  waters,  all  traces 
of  organization  appear  to  have  been  obliterated."  I  have  heard  the 
late  Mr.  Sanderson,  who  prepared  for  Mr.  Witham  most  of  the  speci- 
mens figured  in  his  well-known  work  on  the  '•  Internal  Structure  oi 
Fossil  Vegetables,"  and  from  whom  the  materials  of  his  statement  on 


212  EVIDENCE    OF 

two  great  divisions  of  the  coniferous  family,  araucarians  and 
pines.  The  huge  trees  of  Craigleith  and  Granton  were  of  the 
former  tn.be,  and  approximate  more  nearly  to  Altingia  excclsa^ 

Fig.  53. 


ALTINGIA  EXCELSA,    (NORFOLK-ISLAND   PUfE.) 

From  a  young  specimen  in  the  Botanic  Garden,  Edinburgh. 


this  point  seem  to  have  been  deriyed,  make  a  similar  remark.  It  -was 
rare,  he  said,  to  find  a  bit  of  coal  that  exhibited  the  organic  struc- 
ture. The  case,  however,  is  far  otherwise ;  and  the  ingenious  me- 
chanic and  his  employer  were  misled,  simply  by  the  circumstance, 
that  it  is  rare  to  find  pieces  of  coal  which  exhibit  the  ligneous  fibre, 
existing  in  a  state  of  keeping  solid  enough  to  stand  the  grinding  of 
the  lapidary's  wheel.  The  lignite  usually  occurs  in  thin  layers  of  a 
substance  resembling  soft  charcoal,  at  which,  from  the  loose  adhesion 
of  the  fibres,  the  coal  splits  at  a  stroke  ;  and  as  it  cannot  be  prepared 
as  a  transparency,  it  is  best  examined  by  a  Stanhope  lens.  It  will 
be  found,  tried  in  this  manner,  that  so  far  is  vegetable  fibre  from 
being  of  rare  occurrence  in  coal,  —  our  Scotch  coal  at  least,  —  that 
almost  every  cubic  inch  c  >ntains  its  hundreds,  nay,  its  thousands,  of 
cells. 


THE   FOSSIL   FLORA.  213 

the  Norfolk-Island  pine,  —  a  noble  araucarian,  that  rears  its 
proud  head  from  a  hundred  and  sixty  to  two  hundred  feet 
over  the  soil,  and  exhibits  a  green  and  luxuriant  breadth  of 
foliage  rare  among  tie  Coniferse,  —  than  any  other  living  tree. 

Beyond  the  Coal  Measures  terrestrial  plants  become  ex- 
tremely rare.  The  fossil  botanist,  on  taking  leave  of  the 
lower  Carboniferous  beds,  quits  the  land,  and  sets  out  to  sea  ; 
and  it  seems  in  no  way  surprising,  that  the  specimens  which 
he  there  adc^s  to  his  herbarium  should  consist  mainly  of  Fuca- 
cece  and  Confervece.  The  development  hypothesis  can  borrow 
no  support  from  the  simple  fact,  that  while  a  high  terrestrial 
vegetation  grows  upon  dry  land,  only  algae  grow  in  the  sea ; 
and  even  did  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  and  Silurian  systems  fur- 
nish, as  their  vegetable  organisms,  fucoids  exclusively,  the 
evidence  would  amovint  to  no  more  than  simply  this,  that  the 
land  of  the  Palaeozoic  periods  produced  plants  of  the  land,  and 
the  sea  of  the   Palceozoic   periods  produced  plants  of  the  sea 

In  the  Upper  Old  Red  Sandstone,  — the  formation  of  the 
Holoptychius  and  the  Slagonolepis, — the  only  vegetable  re- 
Tiains  which  I  have  yet  seen  are  of  a  character  so  exceedingly 
obscure  and  doubtful,  that  all  I  could  venture  to  premise  re- 
garding them  is,  that  they  seem  to  be  the  fragments  of  sorely 
comminuted  fucoids.  In  the  formation  of  the  Middle  Old 
Red,  —  that  of  the  Cephalaspis  and  the  gigantic  lobster  of  Car- 
mylie,  —  the  vegetable  remains  are  at  once  more  numerous  and 
better  defined,  I  have  detected  among  the  gray  micaceous 
sandstones  of  Forfarshire  a  fucoid  furnished  with  a  thick, 
squat  stem,  that  branches  into  numerous  divergent  leafleis  or 
fronds,  of  a  slim  parallelogrammical,  grass-like  form,  and 
which,  as  a  whole,  somewhat  resembles  the  scourge  of  cords 
attached  to  a  handle  with  which  a  boy  whips  his  top.     And 


214  EVIDENCE    OF 

Professor  Fleming  describes  a  still  more  remarkable  vegeta- 
ble organism  of  the  same  formation,  "  which,  occurring  in 
the  form  of  circular,  flat  patches,  composed  each  of  numer- 
ous smaller  contiguous  circular  pieces,  is  altogether  not  unliko 
what  might  be  expected  to  result  from  a  compressed  berry, 
such  as  the  bramble  or  rasp."  In  the  Lower  Old  Red, — 
the  formation  of  the  Coccosleus  and  C  heir  acanthus,  —  the  re- 
mains of  fucoids  are  more  numerous  still.  Thtre  are  gray 
slaty  beds  among  the  rocks  of  Navity,  that  owe  their  fissile 
character  mainly  to  their  layers  of  carbonized  weed  ;  and 
"  among  the  rocks  of  Sandy-Bay,  near  Thurso,"  says  Mr. 
Dick,  "  the  dark  impressions  of  large  fucoids  are  so  numer- 
ous, that  they  remind  one  of  the  interlaced  boughs  and  less 
bulky  pine-trunks  that  lie  deep  in  our  mosses."  A  portion  of 
a  stem  from  the  last  locality,  which  I  owe  to  Mr.  Dick,  meas- 
ures three  inches  in  diameter  ;  but  the  ill-compacted  cellular 
tissue  of  the  algse  is  but  indifferently  suited  for  preservation  ; 
and  so  it  exists  as  a  mere  coaly  film,  scarcely  half  a  line  in 
thickness. 

The  most  considerable  collection  of  the  Lower  Old  E,ed 
fucoids  which  I  have  yet  seen  is  that  of  the  Rev.  Charles 
Clouston  of  Sandwick,  in  Orkney,  —  a  skilful  cultivator  of 
geological  science,  who  has  specially  directed  his  palseontol- 
ogical  inquiries  on  the  vegetable  remains  of  the  flagstones  of 
his  district,  as  the  department  in  which  most  remained  to  be 
done  ;  but  his  nsmerous  specimens  only  serve  to  show  what 
a  poverty-stricken  flora  that  of  the  ocean  of  the  Lower  Old 
Red  Sandstone  must  have  been.  I  could  detect  among  them 
but  two  species  of  plants;  —  the  one  an  imperfectly  pre 
served  vegetable,  more  nearly  resembling  a  club-moss  than 
p.ught  e.se  whioh  I  have  seen,  but  which  bore  on  its  surface, 


THE    FOSSIL    FLORA.  215 

instead  of  the  well-marked  scales  of  the  LycopodiazecB,  irreg- 
ular rows  of  tubercles,  that,  when  elongated  in  the  protile, 
as  sometimes  happens,  might  be  mistaken  for  minute,  ill-de- 
fined leaves ;  the  other,  a  smooth-stemmed  fucoid,  existing 
on  the  stone  in  most  cases  as  a  mere  film,  in  which,  however, 
thickly-set  longitudinal  fibres  are  occasionally  traceable,  and 
which  may  be  always  distinguished  from  the  other  by  its 
sharp-edged  outline,  and  from  the  circumstance  that  its  stems 
continue  to  retain  the  same  diameter  for  considerable  distances, 
after  throwing  off  at  acute  angles  numerous  branches  nearly 
as  bulky  as  themselves.  In  a  Thurso  specimen,  about  two 
feet  in  length,  which  I  owe  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Dick,  there 
are  stems  continuous  throughout,  that,  though  they  ramify 
in  that  space  into  from  six  to  eight  branches,  are  nearly  as 
thick  atop  as  at  bottom.  They  are  the  remains,  in  all  proba- 
bility, of  a  long,  flexible  weed,  that  may  have  somewhat 
resembled  those  fucoids  of  the  intertropical  seas,  which, 
streaming  slantwise  in  the  tide,  rise  not  unfrequently  to  the 
surface  in  from  fifteen  to  twenty  fathoms  of  water ;  and 
as,  notwithstanding  their  obscurity,  they  are  among  the  most 
perfect  specimens  of  their  class  yc  found,  and  contrast  with 
the  stately  araucarians  of  the  Coal  Measures,  in  a  style  which 
cannot  fail  to  delight  the  heart  of  every  assertor  of  the  de- 
velopment hypothesis,  I  present  them  to  the  reader  from  Mr. 
Dick's  specimen,  in  a  figure  (fig.  54)  which,  however 
slight  its  interest,  has  at  least  the  merit  of  being  true. 
The  stone  exhibits  specimens  of  the  two  species  of  Mr. 
Clouston's  collection,  —  the  sharp-edged,  fioely-striated 
weed,  a,  and  that  roughened  by  tubercles,  b  ;  which,  besides 
ihe  distinctive  character  manifested  on  its  surface,  dif- 
fers from  the  other  in  rapidly  losing  breath  with  every 
branch  which  it  throws  off,  and,  in  consequence,  runs  soon 


216 


EVIDENCE    OF 


to  a  point.     The  cut  on  the   opposite  page  (fig.  55)  repre- 
sents  not  inadequately  the  cortical  peculiarities  of  the  two 


Fig.  54. 


PCCOIDS   OF   THB   LOATER   OLD  HED  SANDSTONB. 

a.  Smooth-stemmed  species.  b.  Ttibercled  spedet. 

(One  sixth  nat.  size,  linear.) 


THE    FOSSIL   FLOBA.  217 

Kg.  55. 


a.  Smooth-stemmed  species.  b.  Tvbercled  species. 

(Natural  size.) 

species  when  best  preserved.  The  surface  of  the  tubercled  one 
will  perhaps  remind  the  Algologist  of  the  knobbed  surface  of 
the  thong  or  receptacle  of  Himanthalia  lorea,  a  recent  fucoid, 
common  on  the  western  coast  of  Scotland,  but  rare  on  the 
east.  An  Orkney  specimen  lately  sent  me  by  Mr.  William 
Watt,  from  a  quarry  at  Skaill,  has  much  the  appearance 
of  one  of  the  smaller  ferns,  such  as  the  moor-worts,  sea 
spleen-worts,  or  maiden-hairs.  It  exists  as  an  impression 
in  diluted  black,  on  a  ground  of  dark  gray,  and  has  so  little 
sharpness  of  outline,  that,  like  minute  figures  in  oil-paintings, 
it  seems  more  distinct  when  viewed  at  arm's  length  than 
when  microscopically  examined  ;  but  enough  remains  to  show 
that  it  must  have  been  a  terrestrial,  not  a  marine  plant.  The 
accompanying  print  (fig.  56)  may  be  regarded  as  no  un- 
faithful representation  of  this  unique  fossil  in  its  state  of 
imperfect  keeping.  The  vegetation  of  the  Silurian  system, 
from  its  upper  beds  down  till  where  we  reach  the  zero  of  life, 
is,  like  that  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  almost  exclusively 
fucoidal.  In  the  older  fossiliferous  deposits  of  the  system  in 
Sweden,  Russia,  the  Lake  Districts  of  England,  Canada,  and 
the  United  States,  fucoids  occur,  to  the  exclusion,  so  far  as  is 
19 


218  EVIDENCE   OF 

Fig.  66. 


V2SX?    OF  THE   LOWEE  OLD  EED  SAXDSTOXE. 

(Natural  size.) 

yet  known,  of  every  other  vegetable  form  ;  and  such  is  their 
abundance  in  sontie  localities,  that  they  render  the  argilla- 
ceous rocks  in  which  they  lie  diffused,  capable  of  being  fired 
as  an  alum  slate,  and  exist  in  others  as  seams  of  a  compact 
anthracite,  occasionally  used  as  fuel.  They  also  occur  in 
those  districts  of  Wales  in  which  the  place  and  sequence 
of  the  various  Silurian  formations  were  first  determined, 
though  apparently  in  a  state  of  keeping  from  which  little  can 
be  premised  regarding  their  original  forms.  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison  sums  up  his  notice  of  the  vegetable  remains  of  the 
system  in  the  province  whence  it  derives  its  name,  by  stating, 
that  he  had  submitted  his  specimens  to  "  Mr.  Robert  Brown 
and  Dr.  Greville,  and  that  neither  of  these  eminent  botanists 
were  able  to  say  much  more  regarding  them  than  that  they 
were  fucoid-like  bodies." 

Such  are  the  vegetable  organisms  of  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
Stone  and  Silurian  systems:    they  are  the   remains  of  tho 


THE    FOSSIL    FLORA.  219 

ancient  marine  plants  of  ancient  marine  deposits,  and,  as  such, 
lend  quite  as  little  support  to  the  developmen  hypothesis  as 
the  recent  algas  of  our  existing  seas.  The  case,  stated  in  its 
most  favorable  form,  amounts  simply  to  this,  —  that  at  certain 
early  periods,  —  represented  by  the  Upper  and  Lower  Silu- 
rian and  the  Old  Red  deposits,  —  the  seas  produced  sea-plants  ; 
and  that,  at  a  certain  later  period,  —  that  of  the  Carboniferous 
system,  —  the  land  produced  land-plants.  But  even  this,  did 
it  stand  alone,  would  be  a  too  favorable  statement.  I  have 
seen,  on  one  occasion,  the  fisherman  bring  up  with  his  nets, 
far  in  the  open  sea,  a  wild  rose-bush,  that,  though  it  still  bore 
its  characteristic  thorns,  was  encrusted  with  serpula,  and 
laden  with  pendulous  lobularia.  It  had  been  swept  from  its 
original  habitat  by  some  river  in  flood,  that  had  undermined 
and  torn  down  the  bank  on  which  it  grew  ;  and  after  float- 
ing about,  mayhap  for  months,  had  become  so  saturated 
with  water,  that  it  could  float  no  longer.  And  in  that  single 
rose-bush,  dragged  up  to  the  light  and  air  from  its  place 
among  Sertularia,  Fluslra,  Serpula,  and  the  deep-sea  fucoids, 
I  had  as  certain  an  evidence  of  the  existence  of  the  dico- 
tyledonous plant,  as  if  I  had  all  the  families  of  the  Rosacese 
before  me.  Now,  we  are  furnished  by  the  more  ancient  for- 
mations with  evidence  regarding  the  existence  of  a  terres- 
trial vegetation,  such  as  that  which  the  rose-bush  in  this  case 
supplied.  We  cannot  expect  that  the  proofs  should  be  nu- 
merous. In  the  chart  of  the  Pacific  attached  to  the  better 
editions  of  "  Cook's  Voyages,"  there  are  several  notes  along 
the  tract  of  the  great  navigator,  that  indicate  where,  in  mid 
ocean,  trees  or  fragments  of  trees  had  been  picked  up. 
These  entries,  however,  are  but  few,  though  they  belong  to 
all  the  three  voyages  together  :  if  I  remember  aright,  there 
are  only  five  entries  in  all,  —  two  in  the  Northern,,  and  three 


220  EVIDENCE    OP 

in  the  Southern  Pacific.  The  floating  shrub  or  tree,  at  a 
great  distance  from  land,  is  of  rare  occurrence  in  even  the 
present  scene  of  things,  though  the  breadth  of  land  be  great, 
and  trees  numerous  ;  and  in  the  times  of  the  Silurian  and  Old 
Red  Sandstone  systems,  when  the  breadth  of  land  was  ap- 
parently not  great,  and  trees  and  shrubs,  m  consequence,  not 
numerous,  it  must  have  been  of  rarer  occurrence  still.  We 
learn,  however,  from  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  that  in  the  "  Hamil- 
ton group  of  the  United  States,  —  a  series  of  beds  that  cor- 
responds in  many  of  its  fossils  with  the  Ludlow  rocks  of 
England, —  plants  allied  to  the  Lepidodendra  of  the  Carbonif- 
erous type  are  abundant  ;  and  that  in  the  lower  Devonian 
strata  of  New  York  the  same  plants  occur  associated  with 
ferns."  And  I  am  able  to  demonstrate,  from  an  interesting 
fossil  at  present  before  me,  that  there  existed  in  the  period 
of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  vegetable  forms  of  a  class 
greatly  higher  than  either  Lepidodendra  or  ferns. 

In  my  little  work  on  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  1  have  referred 
to  an  apparent  lignite  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  of  Cromarty, 
which  presented,  when  viewed  by  the  microscope,  marks  of 
che  internal  fibre.  The  surface,  when  under  the  glass,  re- 
sembled, I  said,  a  bundle  of  horse-hairs  lying  stretched  in  par- 
allel lines  :  and  in  this  specimen  alone,  it  was  added,  had  I 
found  aught  in  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  approaching  to 
proof  of  the  existence  of  dry  land.  About  four  years  ago  I  had 
this  lignite  put  stringently  to  the  question  by  Mr.  Sanderson ; 
and  deeply  interesting  was  the  result.  I  must  first  mention, 
however,  that  there  cannot  rest  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  regard- 
ing the  place  of  the  organism  in  the  geologic  scale.  It  is  une- 
quivocally a  fossil  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone.  I  found  it 
partially  embedded,  with  many  other  nodules  half-disinterred 
by  the  sea,  in  an  ichthyolitic  deposit,  a  few  hundred  yards  tc 


THE    FOSSIL    FLORA.  221 

the  east  of  the  town  of  Cromarty,  which  occurs  more  than 
four  hundred  feet  over  the  Great  Conglomerate  base  of  the 
system.  A  nodule  that  lay  immediately  beside  it  contained  a 
well-preserved  specimen  of  the  Coccosleus  Decipiens  ;  and  in 
the  nodule  in  which  the  lignite  itself  is  contained,  (fig.  57,) 

Fig.  67. 


LTGNrrE    OP   THE    LOWEB   OLD   BED    SANDSTONE. 

(One  third  nat.  size,  linear.) 

the  practised  eye  may  detect  a  scattered  group  of  scales  of 
Diplacanthtis,  a  scarce  less  characteristic  organism  of  the  lower 
formation.  And  what,  asks  the  reader,  is  the  character  of 
this  very  ancient  vegetable,  —  the  most  ancient,  by  three 
whole  formations,  that  has  presented  its  internal  structure 
tc  the  microscope  ?  Is  it  as  low  in  the  scale  of  development 
as  in  the  geological  scale  .''  Does  this  venerable  Adam  of  the 
forest  appear,  liice  the  Adam  of  the  infidel,  as  a  squalid,  ill- 
formed  savage,  with  a  rugged  shaggy  nature,  which  it  would 
require  the  suggestive  necessities  of  many  ages  painfully  to 
lick  into  civilization  ?  Or  does  it  appear  rather  like  the  Adam 
19* 


222  ANCIENT    CONIFER. 

of  the  poet  and  the  theologian,  independent,  in  its  instanta- 
neously-derived  perfection,  of  all  after  development  ? 

"  Adam,  the  goodliest  man  of  men  since  bom 
His  sons." 

Is  it-3  tissue  vascular  or  cellular,  or,  like  that  of  some  of  the 
cryptogamia,  intermediate  ?     Or  what,  in  fine,  is  the  nature 
and  bearing  of  its  mute  but  emphatic  testimony,  on  that  dor- 
trine  of  progressive  development  of  late  so  strangely  resus 
citated  ? 

In  the  first  place,  then,  this  ancient  fossil  is  a  true  wood, — 
a  Dicotyledonous  or  Polycotyledonous  Gymnosperm,  that,  like 
*he  pines  and  larches  of  our  existing  forests,  bore  naked  seeds, 
which,  in  their  state  of  germination,  developed  either  double 
lobes  to  shelter  the  embryo  within,  or  shot  out  a  fringe  of  ver- 
ticillate  spikes,  which  performed  the  same  protective  func- 
tions, and  that,  as  it  increased  in  bulk  year  after  year,  received 
its  accessions  of  growth  in  outside  layers.  In  the  transverse 
section  the  cells  bear  the  reticulated  appearance  which  distin- 
guish the  conifera3,  (fig.  58,  a  ;)  the  lignite  had  been  exposed 
in  its  bed  to  a  considerable  degree  of  pressure  ;  and  so  the  open- 
ings somewhat  resemble  the  meshes  of  a  net  that  has  been 
drawn  a  little  awry  ;  but  no  general  obliteration  of  their  origi- 
nal character  has  taken  place,  save  in  minute  patches,  where 
they  have  been  injured  by  compression  or  the  bituminizing 
process.  All  the  tubes  indicated  by  the  openings  are,  as  in  re- 
cent coniferse,  of  nearly  the  same  size  ;  and  though,  as  in 
many  of  the  more  ancient  lignites,  there  are  no  indications  of 
annual  rings,  the  direction  of  the  meduUaiy  rays  is  distinctly 
traceable.  The  longitudinal  sections  are  rather  less  distinct 
than  the  transverse  one ;  in  the  section  parallel  to  the  ra- 
dius of  the  etC'Ti  or  bole  the  circulai  disks  of  the  coniferae 


ANCIENT    CONIFEB. 
Fis.  58 


223. 


nraEKNAL    SrRr3TXJHE    OP  LIONITE   OF  LOWER   OLD   BED   SANDSTONE. 

a.  Transverse  section. 

b.  Longitudinal  section,  {parallel  to  raAiis,  or  medullary  rays.") 

c.  Longitudinal  section,  (tangental,  or  parallel  to  the  bark.') 

(Mag.  forty  diameters.) 

were  at  first  not  at  all  detected  ;  and,  as  since  shown  by  a 
very  fine  microscope,  they  appear  simply  as  double  and  triple 
lines  of  undefined  dots,  (J,)  that  somewhat  resemble  the  stip- 
pled markings  of  the  miniature  painter ;  nor  are  the  open- 
ings of  the  medullary  rays  frequent  in  the  tangental  section 
(/.  e.  that  parallel  to  the  bark,)  (c;)  but  nothing  can  be  better 
defined  than  the  peculiar  aiTangemcnt  of  the  woody  fibre, 
and  the  longitudinal  form  of  the  ceils.  Such  is  the  character 
nf  this,  the   mo'^t  ancient  of  lignites  yet  found,  that  yields  to 


.  224  ANCIENT    CONIFER. 

tlie  microscope  the  peculiarities  of  its  original  structure.     We 
find  in  it  an  unfaiien  Adam, —  not  a  half-developed  savage.* 

The  olive  leaf  which  the  dove  brought  to  Noah  established 
at  least  three  important  facts,  and  indicated  a  few  more. 
It  showed  most  conclusively  that  there  was  dry  land,  that 
there  were  olive  trees,  and  that  the  climate  of  the  sur- 
rounding region,  whatever  change  it  might  have  undergone, 
was   still   favorable   to   the   development   of   vegetable   life. 


*  On  a  point  of  such  importance  I  find  it  necessary  to  strengthen 
my  testimony  by  auxiliary  evidence.  The  following  is  the  judg- 
ment, on  this  ancient  petrifaction,  of  Mr.  Nicol  of  Edinburgh, — 
confessedly  one  of  our  highest  living  authorities  in  that  di\'ision  of 
fossil  botany  which  takes  cognizance  of  the  internal  structure  of 
lignites,  and  decides,  from  their  anatomy,  their  race  and  family :  — 

"Edinburgh,  19th  July,  1845. 
"  Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  examined  the  structure  of  the  fossil  wood 
which  you  found  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  at  Cromarty,  and  have 
no  hesitation  in  stating,  that  the  reticulated  texture  of  the  trans- 
verse sections,  though  somewhat  compressed,  clearly  indicates  a 
coniferous  origin ;  but  as  there  is  not  the  slightest  trace  of  a  disc 
to  be  seen  in  the  longitudinal  sections  parallel  to  the  medullary 
rays,  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  it  belongs  to  the  Pine  or  Arau- 
carian  division.     I  am,  &c., 

•'William  Nicol." 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Nicol  failed  to  detect  what  I  now  deem 
the  discs  of  this  conifer,  —  those  stippled  markings  to  which  I  have 
referred,  and  which  the  engraver  has  indicated  in  no  exaggerated 
style,  in  one  of  the  longitudinal  sections  {b)  of  the  wood- cut  given 
above.  But  even  were  this  portion  of  the  evidence  wholly  want- 
ing, we  would  be  left  in  doubt,  in  consequence,  not  whether  the 
Old  Ked  lignite  formed  part  of  a  true  gj'mnospermous  tree,  but 
whether  that  tree  is  now  represented  by  the  pines  of  Europe  and 
America,  or  by  the  araucarians  of  Chili  and  New  Zealand.  Were 
I  to  risk  an  opinion  in  a  department  not  particiilarly  my  province, 
it  would  be  in  favor  of  an  araucarian  relationship. 


ANCIENT    CONIFEE.  ^36 

And,  further,  it  might  be  very  safely  inferred  from  it,  that  if 
olive  trees  had  survived,  other  trees  and  plants  must  have 
survived  also  ;  and  that  the  dark  muddy  prominences  round 
which  the  ebbing  currents  were  fast  sweeping  to  lower  levels, 
would  soon  present,  as  in  antediluvian  times,  their  coverings  of 
cheerful  green.  The  olive  leaf  spoke  not  of  merely  a  partial, 
but  of  a  general  vegetation.  Now,  the  coniferous  lignite  of 
the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  we  find  charged,  like  the  olive 
leaf,  with  a  various  and  singularly  interesting  evidence.  It  is 
something  to  know,  that  in  the  times  of  the  Coccosleus  and 
Asterolepis  there  existed  dry  land,  and  that  that  land  wore,  as 
at  after  periods,  its  soft,  gay  mantle  of  green.  It  is  some- 
thing also  to  know,  that  the  verdant  tint  was  not  owing  to  a 
profuse  development  of  the  mere  immaturities  of  the  vege- 
table kingdom,  —  crisp,  slow-growing  lichens,  or  watery  spore- 
propagated  fungi  that  shoot  up  to  their  full  size  in  a  night, — 
nor  even  to  an  abundance  of  the  more  highly  organized  fam- 
ilies of  the  liverworts  and  the  mosses.  These  may  have 
abounded  then,  as  now  ;  though  we  have  not  a  shadow  of 
evidence  that  they  did.  But  while  we  have  no  proof  what- 
ever of  their  existence,  we  have  conclusive  proof  that  there 
existed  orders  and  families  of  a  rank  far  above  them.  On 
the  dry  land  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone,  on  which, 
according  to  the  theory  of  Adolphe  Brogniart,  nothing  higher 
than  a  lichen  or  a  moss  could  have  been  expected,  the  ship- 
carpenter  might  have  hopefully  taken  axe  in  hand,  to  explore 
the  woods  for  some  such  stately  pine  as  the  one  described  by 
Milton, — 

"  Hewn  on  Norwegian  hills,  to  be  the  mast 
Of  some  great  admiral." 

.  Viewed  simply  in  its  picturesque  aspect,  this  olive  leaf  of 
the  Old  Red  seems  not  at  all  devoid  of  poetry.     We  sail 


226  ANCIENT   CONIFER. 

upwards  into  the  high  geologic  zones,  passing  from  ancient 
to  still  more  ancient  scenes  of  being ;  and,  as  wo  voyage 
along,  find  ever  in  the  surrounding  prospect,  as  in  the  existing 
scene  from  which  we  set  out,  a  graceful  intermixture  of  land 
and  water  continent,  river,  and  sea.  We  first  coast  along 
the  land  o."  the  Tertiary,  inhabited  by  the  strange  quadrupeds 
of  Cuvier,  and  waving  with  the  reeds  and  palms  of  the  Paris 
Basin ;  the  land  of  the  Wealden,  with  its  gigantic  iguanodon 
rustling  amid  its  tree  ferns  and  its  cycadese,  comes  next ; 
then  comes  the  green  land  of  the  Oolite,  with  its  little  pouched 
insectivorous  quadruped,  its  flying  reptiles,  its  vast  jungles  of 
the  Brora  equisetum,  and  its  forests  of  the  Helmsdale  pine  ; 
and  then,  dimly  as  through  a  haze,  we  mark,  as  we  speed  on, 
the  thinly  scattered  islands  of  the  New  Red  Sandstone,  and 
pick  up  in  our  course  a  large  floating  leaf,  veined  like  that  of 
a  cabbage,  which  not  a  little  puzzles  the  botanists  of  the  ex- 
pedition. And  now  we  near  the  vast  Carboniferous  continent, 
and  see  along  the  undulating  outline,  between  us  and  the  sky, 
the  strange  forms  of  a  vegetation,  compared  with  which  that 
of  every  previously  seen  land  seems  stunted  and  poor.  We 
speed  day  after  day  along  endless  forests,  in  which  gigantic 
club-mosses  wave  in  air  a  hundred  feet  over  head,  and  skirt 
interminable  marshes,  in  which  thickets  of  reeds  overtop  the 
mast-head.  And,  where  mighty  rivers  come  rolling  to  the 
sea,  we  mark,  through  the  long-retiring  vistas  which  they  open 
into  the  interior,  the  higher  grounds  of  the  country  covered 
with  coniferous  trees,  and  see  doddered  trunks  of  vast  size, 
like  those  of  Granton  and  Craigleith,  reclining  under  the  banks 
in  deep  muddy  reaches,  with  their  decaying  tops  turned  adown 
the  current.  At  length  the  furthermost  promontory  of  this 
long  range  of  coast  comes  full  in  view  :  we  near  it,  —  \ye 
have  come  up  abreas   d'  it:  we  see  the  shells  of  the  Moun- 


ANCIENT   CONIFER.  2S7 

tain  Lirrsstone  glittering  white  along  its  further  shore,  and 
the  green  depths  under  our  keel  lightened  by  the  flush  of 
innumerable  corals ;  and  then,  bidding  farewell  to  the  land 
forever,  —  for  so  the  geologists  of  but  five  years  ago  would 
have  advised,  —  we  launch  into  the  unmeasured  ocean  of  the 
Old  Red,  with  its  three  consecutive  zones  of  animal  life. 
Not  a  single  patch  of  land  more  do  those  geologic  charts 
exhibit  which  we  still  regard  as  new.  The  zones  of  the 
Silurian  and  Cambrian  succeed  the  zones  of  the  Old  Red  ; 
and,  darkly  fringed  by  an  obscure  bank  of  cloud  ranged 
along  the  last  zone  in  the  series,  a  night  that  never  dissipates 
settles  down  upon  the  deep.  Our  voyage,  like  that  of  the  old 
fabulous  navigators  of  five  centuries  ago,  terminates  on  the 
sea  in  a  thick  darkness,  beyond  which  there  lies  no  shore  and 
there  dawns  no  light.  And  it  is  in  the  middle  of  this  vast 
ocean,  just  where  the  last  zone  of  the  Old  Red  leans  against 
the  fii*st  zone  of  the  Silurian,  that  we  have  succeeded  in  dis- 
covering a  solitary  island  unseen  before,  —  a  shrub-bearing 
land,  much  enveloped  in  fog,  but  with  hills  that  at  least  look 
green  in  the  distance.  There  are  patches  of  floating  sea- 
weed much  comminuted  by  the  surf  all  around  it ;  and  on 
one  projecting  headland  we  see  clear  through  our  glasses  a 
cone-bearing  tree. 

This  certainly  is  not  the  sort  of  arrangement  demanded 
by  the  exigencies  of  the  development  hypothesis.  A  true 
wood  at  the  base  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  or  a  true  Placoid 
in  the  Limestones  of  Bala,  very  considerably  beneath  the  base 
of  the  Lower  Silurian  system,  are  untoward  misplacements 
for  the  purposes  of  the  Lamarckian ;  and  who  that  has 
watched  the  progress  of  discovery  for  the  last  twenty  years, 
and  seen  the  place  of  the  earliest  ichthyolite  transferred  from 
the  Carboniferous  to  the  Cambrian  system,  and  that  of  the 


228  ANCIENT    CONIFER. 

earliest  exogenous  lignite  from  the  Lias  to  the  Lower  De- 
vonian, will   now  venture   to  say  that  fossil  wood   may  not 
yet  be  detected  as  low  in  the  scale  as  any  vegetable  organism 
whatever,  or  fossil  fish  as  low  as  the  remains  of  any  animal  ? 
But  though  the  response  of  the  earlier  geologic  systems  be 
thus   unfavorable   to  the  development   hypothesis,  may  not 
men  such  as  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  "  urge,  that  the 
geologic  evidence,  taken  as  a  whole,  and  in  its  bearing  on 
groupes  and  periods,  establishes  the  general  fact  that  the 
lower   plants   and  animals   preceded   the  higher,  —  that  the 
conifera,  for  instance,  preceded  our  true  forest  trees,  such  as 
the  oak  and  elm,  —  that,  in  like  manner,  the  fish  preceded 
the  reptile,  that  the  reptile  preceded  the  bird,  that  the  bird 
preceded  the  mammiferous  quadruped  and  the  quadrumana, 
and  that  the  mammiferous  quadruped  and  the  quadrumana 
preceded  man  ?     Assuredly  yes !     They  may  and  do   urge 
that  Geology  furnishes  evidence  of  such  a  succession  of  ex- 
istences ;  and  the  arrangement  seems  at  once  a  very  won- 
derful and  very  beautiful  one.     Of  that  great  and  imposing 
procession  of  being  of  which  this  world  has  been  the  scene, 
the   programme   has  been  admirably  marshalled.      But  the 
order  of  the  arrangement  in  no  degree  justifies  the  inference 
based  upon  it  by  the  Lamarckian.     The  fact  that  fishes  and 
reptiles  were  created  on  an  earlier  day  than  the  beasts  of  the 
field  and  the  human  family,  gives  no  ground  whatever  for 
the   belief   that   "  the  peopling  of  the  earth  was  one  of  a 
natural  kind,  requiring  time,"  or  that  the   reptiles  and  fishes 
have  been  not  only  the  predecessors,  but  also  the  progenitors 
of  the   beasts    and  of  man.      The    geological   phenomena, 
even  had    the    author   of  the    "  Vestiges "    been   consulted 
in  their  arrangement,  and  permitted  to  determine  their  se- 
quence, would  yet  have   failed  to  furnish,  not  merely  an 


AlfCIENT   CONIFER. 

adequate  foundation  for  the  development  hypothesis,  hut  even 
the  slightest  presumption  in  its  favor.     In  making  good  the 
assertion,  may  I  ask  the  reader  to  follow  me  through  the 
details  of  a  simple  though  somewhat  lengthened  illustration  ? 
20 


iSSO  SUPERPOSITIOn 


SUPERPOSITION  NOT  PARENTAL  RELATION. 


THE    BEGINNINGS    OF    LIFE. 


Several  thousand  years  ago,  ere  the  upheaval  of  the  ast 
of  our  raised  beaches,  there  existed  somewhere  on  the  B:jtish 
coast  a  submarine  bed,  rich  in  sea-weed  and  the  less  destruc- 
tible zoophytes,  and  inhabited  by  the  commoner  crustacese 
and  molluscs.  Shoals  of  herrings  frequented  it  every  autumn, 
haunted  by  their  usual  enemies  the  dog-fish,  the  cod,  and  the 
porpoise ;  and,  during  the  other  seasons  of  the  year,  it  was 
swum  over  by  the  ling,  the  hake,  and  the  turbot.  A  con- 
siderable stream,  that  traversed  a  wide  extent  of  marshy 
country,  waving  with  flags  and  reeds,  and  in  which  the  frog 
and  the  newt  bred  by  millions,  entered  the  sea  a  few  hun- 
dred yards  away,  and  bore  down,  when  in  flood,  its  modicum 
of  reptilian  remains,  some  of  which,  sinking  over  the  sub- 
marine bed,  found  a  lodgment  at  the  bottom.  Portions  of 
reeds  and  flags  were  also  occasionally  entombed,  with  now 
and  then  boughs  of  the  pine  and  juniper,  swept  from  the 
higher  grounds.  Through  frequent  depositions  of  earthy 
matter  brought  down  by  the  streamlet,  and  of  sand  thrown 
up  by  the  sea,  a  gradual  elevation  of  the  bottom  went  on, 
till  at  length  the  deep-sea  bed  came  to  ex"ist  as  a  shallow 
bank,  over  which  birds  of  the  wader  family  stalked  mid-leg 


NOT   PARENTAL   RELATION.  231 

deep  when  plying  for  food  ;  and  on  one  occasion  a  small  por* 
poise,  losing  his  way,  and  getting  entangled  amid  its  shoals, 
perished  on  it,  and  left  his  carcass  to  be  covered  up  by  its 
mud  and  silt.  That  elevation  of  the  land,  or  recession  of  tho 
sea,  to  which  the  countr}'  owes  its  last  acquired  marginal  strip 
of  soil,  took  place,  and  the  shallow  bank  became  a  flat 
meadow,  raised  some  six  or  eight  feet  above  the  sea-level. 
Herbs,  shrubs,  and  trees,  in  course  of  time  covered  it  over; 
and  then,  as  century  succeeded  century,  it  gathered  atop  a 
thick  stratum  of  peaty  mould,  embedding  portions  of  birch 
and  hazel  bushes,  and  a  few  doddered  oaks.  When  in  this 
state,  at  a  comparatively  recent  period,  an  Ita]i..n  boy,  ac- 
companied by  his  monkey,  was  passing  over  it,  when  the  poor 
monkey,  hard-wrought  and  ill-fed,  and  withal  but  indiffer- 
ently suited  originally  for  braving  the  rigors  of  a  keen  north- 
ern climate,  lay  down  and  died,  and  his  sorrowing  master 
covered  up  the  remains.  Not  many  years  after,  the  mutilated 
corpse  of  a  poor  shipwrecked  sailor  was  thrown  up,  during  a 
night-storm,  on  the  neighboring  beach  :  it  was  a  mere  frag- 
ment of  the  human  frame,  —  a  mouldering  unsightly  mass,  de- 
composing in  the  sun  ;  and  a  humane  herd-boy,  scooping  out  a 
shallow  grave  for  it,  immediately  over  that  of  the  monkey, 
buried  it  up.  Last  of  all,  a  farmer,  bent  on  agricultural  im- 
provement, furrowed  the  flat  meadow  to  the  depth  of  some 
six  or  eight  feet,  by  a  broad  ditch,  that  laid  open  its  organic 
contents  from  top  to  bottom.  And  then  a  philosopher  of  the 
school  of  Maillet  and  Lamarck,  chancing  to  come  that  way, 
stepped  aside  to  examine  the  phenomena,  and  square  them 
with  his  theory. 

First,  along  the  bottom  of  the  deep  ditch  he  detects  marine 
organisms  of  a   low  order,  and  generally  of  a  small  size. 


232  SUPERPOSITION 

Thero  are  dark  indistinct  markings  traversing  the  gray  si.t 
which  he  correctly  enough  regards  as  the  remains  of  fucoids  ; 
and  blent  with  these,  he  finds  the  stony  cells  of  flustra,  the 
calcareous  spindles  of  the  sea-pen,  the  spines  of  echinus, 
and  the  thin  granular  plates  of  the  Crustacea.  Layers  of  mus- 
sel and  pecten  shells  come  next,  mixed  up  with  the  shells  of 
buccinum,  natica,  and  trochus.  Over  the  shells  there  occur 
defensive  spines  of  the  dog-fish,  blent  with  the  button-like, 
thornset  bouclesof  the  ray.  And  the  minute  ske'etons  of  her- 
rings, with  the  vertebral  and  cerebral  bones  of  coa,  rest  over 
these  in  turn.  He  finds,  also,  well-preserved  bits  of  reed,  and 
a  fragment  of  pine.  Higher  up,  the  well-marked  bones  of 
the  frog  occur,  and  the  minute  skeleton  of  a  newt ;  higher 
still,  the  bones  of  birds  of  the  diver  family  ;  higher  still,  the 
skeleton  of  a  porpoise  ;  and  still  higher,  he  discovers  that  of  a 
monkey,  resting  amid  the  decayed  boles  and  branches  of  dicot- 
yledonous plants  and  trees.  He  pursues  his  search,  vastly 
delighted  to  find  his  doctrine  of  progressive  development  so 
beautifully  illustrated  ;  and  last  of  all  he  detects,  only  a  few 
inches  from  the  surface,  the  broken  remains  of  the  poor  sailor. 
And  having  thus  collected  his  facts,  he  sets  himself  to  collate 
them  with  his  hypothesis.  To  hold  that  the  zoophytes  had 
been  created  zoophytes,  the  molluscs  molluscs,  the  fishes 
fishes,  the  reptiles  reptiles,  or  the  man  a  man,  would  be,  ac- 
cording to  our  philosopher,  alike  derogatory  to  the  Divine  wis- 
dom and  to  the  acumen  and  vigor  of  the  human  intellect : 
it  would  be  "  distressing  to  him  to  be  compelled  to  picture  the 
power  of  God,  as  put  forth  in  any  other  manner  than  in  those 
slow,  mysterious,  universal  laws,  which  have  so  plainly  an 
eternity  to  work  in  ;  "  nor,  with  so  large  an  amount  of  evi- 
rience  before  him  as  that  which  the  ditch  furnishes,  —  evidence 


NOT   PARENTAL   RELATION.  233 

conclusive  to  the  effect  that  creation  is  but  development,  —  does 
he  find  it  necessary  either  to  cramp  his  faculties  or  outrage  his 
taste,  by  a  weak  yielding  to  the  requirements  of  any  such  belief. 
Meanwhile  the  farmer,  —  a  plain,  observant,  elderly  man, 
3omes  up,  and  he  and  the  philosopher  enter  into  conversa- 
tion, "  I  have  been  reading  the  history  of  creation  in  the 
side  of  your  deep  ditch,"  says  the  philosopher,  "  and  find  the 
record  really  very  complete.  Look  there,"  he  adds,  pointing 
to  the  unfossiliferous  strip  that  runs  along  the  bottom  of  the 
bank  ;  "  there,  life,  both  vegetable  and  animal,  first  began. 
It  began,  struck  by  electricity  out  of  albumen,  as  a  con- 
geries of  minute  globe-shaped  atoms,  —  each  a  hoUovir 
sphere  within  a  sphere,  as  in  the  well-known  Chinese  puz- 
zle ;  and  from  these  living  atoms  were  all  the  higher  forms 
progressively  developed.  The  ditch,  of  course,  exhibits  none 
of  the  atoms  with  which  being  first  commenced  ;  for  the 
atoms  don't  keep  ;  —  we  merely  see  their  place  indicated  by 
that  unfossiliferous  band  at  the  bottom  ;  but  we  may  detect 
immediately  over  it  almost  the  first  organisms  into  which  — 
parting  thus  early  into  the  two  great  branches  of  organic  be- 
ing—  they  were  developed.  There  are  the  fucoids,  first-born 
among  vegetables,  —  and  there  the  zoophytes,  well  nigh  the 
lowest  of  the  animal  forms.  The  fucoids  are  marine  plants  ; 
for,  according  to  Oken,  '  all  life  is  from  the  sea,  —  none  from 
the  continent ;'  but  there,  a  few  feet  higher,  we  may  see  the 
remains  of  reeds  and  flags,  —  semi-aqueous,  semi-aerial  plants 
of  the  comparatively  low  monocotyledonous  order  into  whicl. 
the  fucoids  were  developed  ;  higher  still  we  detect  fragments 
of  pines,  and,  I  think,  juniper,  —  trees  and  shrubs  of  the  land 
of  an  intermediate  order,  into  which  the  reeds  and  flags  were 
developed  in  turn ;  and  in  that  peaty  layer  immediately  be- 
neath the  vegetable  mould,  there  occur  boughs  and  trunks 
20* 


234  SUPEEPOSITION 

of  biacicened  oak,— a  noble  tree  of  the  dicotyledonous 
division,  —  the  highest  to  which  vegetation  in  its  upward  course 
has  yet  attained.  Nor  is  the  progress  of  the  other  great  branch 
of  organized  being — that  of  the  animal  kingdom  —  less  dis- 
tinctly traceable.  The  zoophytes  became  Crustacea  and  mol- 
luscs, —  the  Crustacea  and  molluscs,  dog-fishes  and  herrings, 
—  the  dog-fish,  a  low  placoid,  shot  up  chiefly  into  turbot,  cod, 
and  ling  ;  but  the  smaller  osseous  fish  was  gradually  convert- 
ed into  a  batrachian  reptile  ;  in  short,  the  herring  became  a 
frog,  —  an  animal  that  still  testifies  to  its  ichthyological 
origin,  by  commencing  life  as  a  fish.  Gradually,  in  the 
course  of  years,  the  reptile,  expanding  in  size  and  improving 
in  faculty,  passed  into  a  warm-blooded  porpoise  ;  the  porpoise 
at  length,  tiring  of  the  water  as  he  began  to  know  better, 
quitted  it  altogether,  and  became  a  monkey,  and  the  monkey 
by  slow  degrees  improved  into  man,  —  yes,  into  man,  my 
friend,  who  has  still  a  tendency,  especially  when  just  shooting 
up  to  his  full  stature,  and  studying  the  '  Vestiges,'  to  resume 
the  monkey.  Such,  Sir,  is  the  true  history  of  creation,  as 
clearly  recorded  in  the  section  of  earth,  moss,  and  silt,  which 
you  have  so  opportunely  laid  bare.  Where  that  ditch  now 
opens,  the  generations  of  the  man  atop  lived,  died,  and  were 
developed.  There  flourished  and  decayed  his  great-great- 
great-great-grandfather  the  sea-pen,  —  his  great-great-great- 
grandfathsr  the  mussel,  —  his  great-great-grandfather  the  her- 
ring, —  his  great-grandfather  the  frog,  —  his  grandfather  the 
porpoise,  —  and  his  father  the  monkey.  And  there  also  lived, 
died,  and  were  developed,  the  generations  of  the  oak,  from  the 
kelp- weed  and  tangle  to  the  reed  and  the  flag,  and  from  the 
reed  and  the  flag,  to  the  pine,  the  juniper,  the  hazel,  and  the 
birch." 
"  Master,"  replies  the  farmer,  "  I  see  you  are  a  scholar, 


NOT   PARENTAL   RELATION.  235 

and,  I  suspect,  a  wag.  It  would  take  a  great  deal  of  believ- 
ing to  believe  a'l  that.  In  the  days  of  my  poor  old  neigh- 
bor the  infidel  weaver,  who  died  of  delirium  tremens  thirty 
years  ago,  I  used  to  read  Tom  Paine  ;  and,  as  I  was  a  little 
wild  at  the  time,  I  was,  I  am  afraid,  a  bit  of  a  sceptic.  It 
wasn't  easy  work  always  to  be  as  unbelieving  as  Tom,  espe- 
cially when  the  conscience  within  got  queasy ;  but  it  would 
be  a  vast  deal  ea-sier,  Master,  to  doubt  with  Tom  than  to 
believe  with  you.  I  am  a  plain  man,  but  not  quite  a  fool ; 
and  as  I  have  now  been  looking  about  me  in  this  neigh- 
borhood for  the  last  forty  years,  I  have  come  to  know 
that  it  gives  no  assurance  that  any  one  thing  grew  out  of 
any  other  thing  because  it  chances  to  be  found  atop  of  it, 
Master.  See,  yonder  is  Dobbin  lying  lazily  atop  of  his 
bundle  of  hay ;  and  yonder  little  Jack,  with  bridle  in  hand, 
and  he  in  a  few  minutes  will  be  atop  of  Dobbin.  And  all  I 
see  in  that  ditch.  Master,  from  top  to  bottom,  is  neither  more 
nor  less  than  a  certain  top-upon-bottom  order  of  things.  I  see 
sets  of  bones  and  dead  plants  lying  on  the  top  of  other  sets 
of  bones  and  dead  plants,  —  things  lying  atop  of  things,  as  I 
say,  like  Dobbin  «n  the  hay  and  Jack  upon  Dobbin.  I 
doubt  not  the  sea  was  once  here,  Master,  just  as  it  was  once 
where  you  see  the  low-lying  field  yonder,  which  I  won  from 
it  ten  years  ago.  I  have  carted  tangle  and  kelp-weed  where 
I  now  cut  clover  and  rye-grass,  and  have  gathered  periwinkles 
where  I  now  see  snails.  But  it  is  clean  against  experience,  as 
my  poor  old  neighbor  the  weaver  used  to  say,  —  against  my 
experience,  Master,  —  that  it  was  the  kelp-weed  that  became 
the  rye-grass,  or  that  the  periwinkles  freshened  into  snails. 
The  kelp-weed  and  periwinkles  belong  to  those  plants  and 
animals  of  the  sea  that  we  find  growing  in  only  the  sea ;  the 
rye-grass  and  snails,  to  thDse  plants  and  animals  of  the  land 


236  SUPERPOSITION 

that  we  finl  growing  on  only  the  land.  It  is  contrary  to  all 
experience,  and  all  testimony  too,  that  the  one  passed  into 
the  other,  and  so  I  cannot  believe  it ;  but  I  do  and  must  be 
lieve,  instead,-^- for  it  is  not  contrary  to  experience,  and  much 
according  to  testimony,  —  that  the  Author  of  all  created  both 
land  productions  and  sea  productions  at  the  '  times  before  ap- 
pointed,' and  '  determined  the  bounds  of  their  habitation.' 
'  By  faith  we  understand  that  the  worlds  were  framed  by  the 
word  of  God ; '  and  I  find  I  can  be  a  believer  on  God's 
terms  at  a  much  less  expense  of  credulity  than  an  infidel  on 
yours." 

But  in  this  form  at  least  it  can  be  scarce  necessary  that  the 
argument  should  be  prolonged. 

The  geological  phenomena,  I  repeat,  even  had  the  author 
of  the  "  Vestiges  "  been  consulted  in  their  arrangement,  and 
permitted  to  determine  their  sequence,  would  fail  to  furnish 
a  single  presumption  in  favor  of  the  development  hypothe- 
sis. Does  the  ditch-side  of  my  illustration  furnish  it  with  a 
single  favoring  presumption  ?  The  arrangement  and  se- 
quence of  the  various  organisms  are  complete  in  both  the 
zoological  and  phytological  branch.  The  flc^  and  reed  succeed 
the  fucoid  ;  the  fir  and  juniper  succeed  the  flag  and  reed  ;  and 
the  hazel,  birch,  and  oak  succeed  the  fir  and  juniper.  In  like 
manner,  and  with  equal  regularity,  zoophytes,  the  radiata,  the 
articulata,  moUusca,  fishes,  reptiles,  birds,  and  mammals,  are 
ranged,  the  superior  in  succession  over  the  inferior  classes,  in 
the  true  ascending  order;  and  yet  we  at  once  see  that  the 
evidence  of  ths  ditch-side,  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  no 
more  than  this,  that  the  remains  of  the  higher  lie  over  those 
of  the  lower  organisms,  gives  not  a  shadow  of  support  to  the 
hypothesis  that  the  lower  produced  the  higher.  For,  accord- 
ing  to  the   honest  farmer,  the   fact   that   any  one   thing  is 


JIOT   TARENTAL   RELATION.  237 

t»»wrttl  Ijing  dn  i^e  top  of  mny  other  thing,  furnishes  no  pre- 
sunr>;i!ion  wha*';«'cv  that  the  thing  below  stands  in  the  rela- 
tian  of  pB.-ent  tc  I'le  thing  ab-)ve.  And  the  evidence  which 
the  wcll-rangtd  organisms  of  the  ditch-side  do  not  furnish, 
the  organisms  of  the  entire  geok>gic  scale,  even  were  they 
equally  well  ranged,  would  fail  to  supply.  The  fossiliferous 
portion  of  the  ditch-side  of  my  il'ui-tiation  may  be,  let  us  sup- 
pose, some  five  or  six  feet  in  thickness ;  the  fossiliferous 
portion  of  the  earth's  crust  must  be  soine  five  or  six  miles  in 
thickness.  But  the  mere  circumstance  of  space  introduces  no 
new  element  into  the  question.  Equ'sdly  in  both  cases  the 
fact  of  superposition  is  not  identical  with  the  fact  of  parental 
relation,  nor  even  in  any  degree  an  analogous  fact. 

As,  however,  the  succession  of  remains  in  the  fossiliferous 
series  of  rocks  is  infiuitely  less  favorable  to  the  develop- 
ment hypothesis  than  that  cf  the  organisms  of  the  ditch-side, 
it  is  not  very  surprising  that  the  disciples  of  the  development 
school  should  be  now  evinc5i?g  a  disposition  to  escape  from 
the  ascertained  facts  of  Geology,  and  the  legitimate  conclu- 
sions based  upon  these,  unto  unknown  and  unexplored  prov- 
inces of  the  science ;  or  that  they  should  be  found  virtually 
urging,  that  though  some  of  the  ascertained  facts  may  seem 
to  bear  against  them,  the  facts  not  yet  ascertained  may  be 
found  telling  in  their  favor.  Such,  in  effect,  is  the  courae 
taken  by  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges,"  in  his  "  Explanations," 
when,  availing  himself  of  a  difference  of  opinion  which  ex- 
ists among  some  of  our  most  accomplished  geologists  regard- 
ing the  first  epochs  of  organized  existence,  he  takes  part 
with  the  section  who  hold  that  we  have  not  yet  penetrated 
to  the  deposits  representative  of  the  dawn  of  being,  and  that 
fossil-charged  formations  may  yet  be  detected  beneath  the 
oldest  rocks  of  what  is  now  regarded  as  the  lowest  fossilifer- 


238  THE    BEGINNINGS 

ous  system.  Sir  Charles  Lyell  and  Mr.  Leonard  Homer 
represent  the  ahler  and  better-known  assertors  of  this  last 
view  ;  while  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  and  Professor  Sedgwick 
rank  among  .he  more  distinguished  assertors  of  the  antago- 
crist  one.  It  would  be  of  course  utterly  presumptuous  in 
the  writer  of  these  pages  to  attempt  deciding  a  question 
regarding  which  such  men  differ ;  but  in  forming  a  judg- 
ment for  myself,  various  considerations  incline  me  to  hold, 
that  the  point  is  now  very  nearly  determined  at  which, 
to  employ  the  language  of  Sir  Roderick,  "  life  was  first 
breathed  into  the  waters."  The  pyramid  of  organized  ex- 
istence, as  it  ascends  in  the  by-past  eternity,  inclines  sen- 
sibly towards  its  apex,  —  that  apex  of  "  beginning''''  in  which, 
on  far  other  than  geological  grounds,  it  is  our  privilege  to 
believe.  The  broad  base  of  the  superstructure,  planted  on 
the  existing  noio,  stretches  across  the  entire  scale  of  life, 
animal  and  vegetable ;  but  it  contracts  as  it  rises  into  the 
past ;  —  man  —  the  quadrumana  —  the  quadrupedal  mammal 
—  the  bird  —  and  the  reptile  —  are  each  in  succession  struck 
from  off  its  breadth,  till  we  at  length  see  it  with  the  ver- 
tebrata,  represented  by  only  the  fish,  narrowing,  as  it  were, 
to  a  point ;  and  though  the  clouds  of  the  upper  region  may 
hide  its  extreme  apex,  we  infer  from  the  declination  of  its 
sides,  that  it  cannot  penetrate  much  farther  into  the  pro- 
found. When  Steele  and  Addison  were  engaged  in  break- 
ing up,  piecemeal,  their  Spectator  Club, —  killing  off  good 
Sir  Roger  de  Coverly  with  a  defluction,  marrying  Will 
Honeycomb  to  his  tenant's  daughter,  and  sending  away 
Captain  Sentry  and  Sir  Andrew  Freeport  to  their  estates 
in  the  country,  —  it  was  shrewdly  inferred  that  the  "  Spec- 
tator "  himself  was  very  soon  to  quit  the  field  ;  and  the 
sudden   disaontinuance  of  his  lucubrations   justified  the    in- 


OF   LIFE.  239 

ference.  And  a  corresponding  style  of  reasoning,  based 
on  the  CDrresponding  fact  of  the  breaking  up  and  piece- 
meal disappearance  of  the  group  of  organized  being,  seems 
equally  admissible.  It  is  somewhat  difficult  *o  conceive  how 
at  least  many  more  volumes  of  the  geolcgic  record  than  the 
known  ones  could  be  got  ud  without  the  cluh.  Further,  —  so  far 
as  yet  appears,  the  fish  n.ust  have  lived  in  advance  of  the  rep- 
tile during  the  three  protracted  periods  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone,  the  two  still  more  protracted  periods  of  the  Up- 
per and  Lower  Silurians,  and  the  perhaps  more  protracted 
period  still  of  the  Cambrian  deposits  ;  —  in  all,  apparently,  a 
greatly  more  extended  space  than  that  in  which  the  rep- 
tile lived  in  advance  of  the  quadrupedal  mammal,  or  the 
quadrupedal  mammal  lived  in  advance  of  man.  On  prin- 
ciples somewhat  similar  to  those  on  which,  with  reference  to 
the  average  term  of  life,  the  genealogist  fixes  the  probable 
period  of  some  birth  in  his  chain  of  succession  of  which  he 
cannot  determine  the  exact  date,  it  seems  natural  to  infer 
that  the  hirth  of  the  fish  should  have  taken  place  at  least  not 
earlier  than  the  times  of  the  Cambrian  system. 

There  is  another  consideration,  of  at  least  equal,  if  not  greater 
weight.  A  general  correspondence  is  found  to  obtain  in  wide- 
ly-separated localities,  in  the  organic  contents  of  that  lowest 
band  of  the  Lower  Silurian  or  Cambrian  system  in  which  fossils 
have  been  detected.  In  Russia,  in  Sweden,  in  Norway,  in  the 
Lake  district  of  England,  and  in  the  United  States,  there  are 
certain  rocks  which  occupy  relatively  the  same  place,  and  en- 
close what  may  be  described  generally  as  the  same  remains. 
They  occur  in  Scandinavia  as  that  "  fucoidal  band  "  of  Sir  Ro- 
derick Murchison  which  forms  the  base  of  the  vast  Palaeozoic 
basin  of  the  Baltic  ;  they  exist  in  Cumberland  and  Westmore- 
land as  the  Skiddaw  slates  of  Professor  Sedgwick,  and  bear 


840  THE    BEGINNINGS 

also  their  fucoidal  impressions,  blent  with  graptolites ;  they 
are  present  in  Norfti  America  as  those  Potsdam  sandstones  of 
the  States'  geologists  in  which  fucoids  so  abound,  mixed  with 
a  minute  lingula,  that  they  impart  to  some  portions  of  the 
strata  a  carboniferous  character.  But  with  these  deep-lying 
beds  in  all  the  several  localities,  thousands  of  miles  apart,  in 
which  their  passage  into  the  inferior  deposits  has  been  traced, 
fossils  cease.  And  why  cease  with  them  ?  In  one  locality 
the  ancient  ocean  may  have  been  of  such  a  depth  in  the 
period  immed'iaiely  previous,  and  represented,  in  consequence, 
by  the  strata  immediately  beneath,  that  no  animal  could  have 
lived  at  its  bottom,  —  though  I  do  not  well  see  why  the  re- 
mains of  those  animals  who,  like  the  shark  and  pilot-fish,  are 
frequently  seen  swimming^ver  the  profoundest  depths,  might 
not,  did  such  exist  at  the  time,  be  notwithstanding  found  at  its 
bottom  ;  or  in  another  locality  every  trace  of  organization  in 
the  nether  rocks  may  have  been  obliterated,  at  some  posterior 
period,  by  fire.  But  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  that  uniform 
cessation  of  organized  life  at  one  point,  which  seems  to  have 
conducted  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  and  Professor  Sedgwick  to 
their  conclusion,  should  have  been  thus  a  mere  effect  of  ac- 
cident. Accident  has  its  laws,  but  uniformity  is  not  one  of 
them ;  and  should  the  experience  be  invariable,  as  it  already 
seems  extensive,  that  immediately  beneath  the  fucoidal  beds 
organic  remains  cease,  I  do  not  see  how  the  conclusion  is  to 
be  avoided,  that  they  represent  the  period  in  which  at  least 
existences  capable  of  preservation  were  first  introduced.  Every 
case  of  coincident  cessation  which  has  occurred  since  the 
determination  of  the  second  case,  must  be  reckoned,  not 
simply  as  an  additional  unit  in  evidence,  but,  on  the  prin- 
ciples which  determine  mathematical  probability,  as  a  unit 
multiplied,  first  by  the  chances  against  its  occurrence,  re- 


OF    LIFE.  241 

garded  as  a  mere  contingency  in  thai  exact  forrr.ation,  and 
second,  by  the  sum  of  all  the  previous  occurrences  at  the 
same  point. 

In  this  curious  question,  however,  w^hich  it  must  be  the  part 
of  future  explorers  in  the  geological  field  definitely  to  settle, 
the  Lamarckian  can  have  no  legitimate  stake.  It  is  but  na- 
tural that,  in  his  anxiety  to  secure  an  ultimate  retreat  for  his 
hypothesis,  he  should  desire  to  see  that  darkness  in  which 
ghosts  love  to  walk  settling  down  on  the  extreme  verge  of  the 
geological  horizon,  and  enveloping  in  its  folds  the  first  begin- 
nings of  life.  But  even  did  the  cloud  exist,  it  is,  if  1 
may  so  express  myself,  on  its  nearer  side,  where  there  is  light, 
—  not  within  nor  beyond  it,  where  there  is  none,  —  that  the 
battle  must  be  fought.  It  is  to  Geology  as  it  is  known  to  be, 
that  the  Lamarckian  has  appealed,  —  not  to  Geology  as  it  is 
not  known  to  be.  He  has  summoned  into  court  existing  wit- 
nesses ;  and,  finding  their  testimony  unfavorable,  he  seeks  to 
neutralize  their  evidence  by  calling  from  the  "  vasty  deep," 
of  the  unexamined  and  the  obscure,  witnesses  that  "  won't 
come,"  —  that  by  the  legitimate  authorities  are  not  known 
even  to  exist,  —  and  with  which  he  himself  is,  on  his  own 
confession,  wholly  unacquainted,  save  in  the  old  scholastic 
character  of  mere  possibilities.  The  possible  fossil  can  have 
no  more  standing  in  this  controversy  than  the  '^'^ possible  angeiy 
He  tells  us  that  we  have  not  yet  got  down  to  that  base-line 
of  all  the  fossiliferous  systems  at  which  life  first  began ;  and 
very  possibly  we  have  not.  But  what  of  thai .?  He  has 
carried  his  appeal  to  Geology  as  it  is;  —  he  has  referred  his 
case  to  the  testimony  of  the  known  witnesses,  for  in  no  case 
can  the  unknown  ones  be  summoned  or  produced.  It  js  on 
the  evidence  of  the  known,  and  the  known  only,  that  the 
exact  value  of  his  claims  must  be  determined ;  and  his 
21 


242  THE    BEGINNINGS    OF    LIFE. 

appeal  to  the  unknown  serves  but  to  show  how  th^i.iighly  he 
himself  feels  that  the  actually  ascertained  evidence  bears 
against  him.  The  severe  censure  of  Johnson  on  reasoners  of 
this  class  is  in  no  degree  over-severe.  "  He  who  will  deter- 
mine," said  the  moralist,  "  against  that  which  he  knows,  be- 
cause there  may  be  something  which  he  knows  not,  —  he  that 
can  set  hypothetical  possibility  against  acknowledged  cer- 
tainty,—  is  not  to  be  admitted  among  reasonable  beings." 

But  the  honest  farmer's  reminiscences  of  his  deceased 
neighbor  the  weaver,  and  his  use  at  second-hand  of  Hume's 
experience-argument,  naturally  lead  me  to  another  branch  of 
the  subject. 


LAMAECKIAN   HYPOTHESIS.  243 


LAMAUCKIAN  HYPOTHESIS  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF  PLANTS. 

ITS   CONSEQUENCES. 


I  HAVE  said  that  the  curiously-mixed,  semi-marine,  semi- 
lacustrine  flora  of  the  Lake  of  Stennis  became  associated 
in  my  mind,  like  the  ancient  Asterolepis  of  Stromness,  with 
the  development  hypothesis.  The  fossil,  as  has  been  shown, 
represents  not  inadequately  the  geologic  evidence  in  the 
question,  —  the  mixed  vegetation  of  the  lake  may  be  regarded 
as  forming  a  portion  of  the  phytological  evidence. 

"  All  life,"  says  Oken,  "  is  from  the  sea.  Where  the  sea 
organism,  by  self-elevation,  succeeds  in  attaining  into  form, 
there  issues  forth  from  it  a  higher  organism.  Love  arose  ou 
of  the  sea-foam.  The  primary  mucus  (that  in  which  elec- 
tricity originates  life)  was,  and  is  still,  generated  in  those  very 
parts  of  the  sea  where  the  water  is  in  contact  with  earth  and 
air,  and  thus  upon  the  shores.  The  first  creation  of  the  or- 
ganic took  place  where  the  first  mountain  summits  projected 
out  of  the  water,  —  indeed,  without  doubt,  in  India,  if  the 
Himalaya  be  the  highest  mountain.  Thejirst  organic  forms, 
whether  plants  or  animals,  emerged  from  the  shallow  purls  of 
the  seay  Maillet  wrote  to  exactly  the  same  efTect  a  full  century 
ago.     "  In  a  word,"  we  find  him  saying,  in  his  "  Telliamed," 


244  LAMARCKIAN   HYPOTHESIS 

"  do  not  herbs,  plants,  roots,  grains,  and  all  of  this  kind  that 
tlie  earth  produces  and  n-^jrishes,  come  from  the  sea?  Is  it 
not  at  least  natural  to  think  so,  since  we  are  certain  that  all 
our  habitable  lands  came  originally  from  the  sea  ?  Besides, 
in  small  islands  far  from  the  contirent,  which  have  appeared 
but  a  few  ages  ago  at  most,  and  where  it  is  manifest  that 
never  any  man  had  been,  we  find  shrubs,  herbs,  roots,  and 
sometimes  animals.  Now,  you  must  be  forced  to  own  either 
that  these  productions  owed  their  origin  to  the  sea,  or  to  a 
new  creation,  which  is  absurd." 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  to  which,  in  the  passing,  I  must  be 
permitted  to  call  the  attention  of  the  reader,  that  all  the 
leading  assertors  of  the  development  hypothesis  have  been 
bad  geologists.  Maillet  had  for  his  errors  and  deficiencies 
the  excellent  apology  that  he  wrote  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ago,  when  the  theory  of  a  universal  ocean,  promul- 
gated by  Leibnitz  nearly  a  century  earlier,  was  quite  as 
good  as  any  of  the  other  theories  of  the  time,  and  when 
jreology,  as  a  science,  had  no  existence.  And  so  we  do 
not  wonder  at  an  ignorance  which  was  simply  that  of  his 
age,  when  we  find  him  telling  his  readers  that  plants  must 
have  originated  in  the  sea,  seeing  that  "  all  our  habitable 
lands  came  originally  from  the  sea ; "  meaning,  of  course, 
by  the  statement,  not  at  all  what  the  modern  geologist 
would  mean  were  he  to  employ  even  the  same  words,  but 
simply  that  there  was  a  time  when  the  universal  ocean  co- 
vered the  whole  globe,  and  that,  as  the  waters  gradually  di- 
minished, the  loftier  mountain  summits  and  higher  table- 
lands, in  appearing  in  their  new  character  as  islands  and 
continents,  derived  their  flora  from  what,  in  a  universal 
ocean,  could  be  the  only  possible  existing  flora,  —  that  of  the 
sea      But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  equally  profound  ignorance 


OF    THE    ORIGIN    OF    PLANTS.  245 

manifested  by  Professor  Oken,  a  living  authority,  whom  we 
find  prefacing  for  the  Ray  Society,  in  1847,  the  English 
translation  ol  his  "  Elements  of  Physio-philosophy  ?  "  "  The 
first  creation  of  the  organic  took  place,"  we  find  him  saying, 
"where  the  first  mountain  summits  projected  out  of  the 
sea,  —  indeed,  without  doubt,  in  India,  if  the  Himalaya  be 
the  highest  mountain"  Here,  evidently,  in  this  late  age  of  the 
world,  in  which  Geology  does  exist  as  a  science,  do  we  find 
the  ghost  of  the  universal  ocean  of  Leibnitz  walking  once 
more,  as  if  it  had  never  been  laid.  Is  there  now  in  all  Bri- 
tain even  a  tyro  geologist  so  unacquainted  with  geological 
fact  as  not  to  know  that  the  richest  flora  which  the  globe 
ever  saw  had  existed  for  myriads  of  ages,  and  then,  becoming 
extinct,  had  slept  in  the  fossil  state  for  myriads  of  ages 
more,  ere  the  highest  summits  of  the  Himalayan  range  rose 
over  the  surface  of  the  deep  ?  The  Himalayas  disturbed,  and 
bore  up  along  with  them  in  their  upheaval,  vast  beds  of  the 
Oolitic  system.  Belemnites  and  ammonites  have  been  dug 
out  of  their  sides  along  the  line  of  perpetual  snow,  seventeen 
thousand  feet  over  the  level  of  the  sea.  What  in  the  recent 
period  form  the  loftiest  mountains  of  the  globe,  existed  as 
portions  of  a  deep-sea  bottom,  swum  over  by  the  fishes 
and  reptiles  of  the  great  Secondary  period,  when  what  is 
now  Scotland  had  its  dark  forests  of  stately  pine,  —  repre- 
sented in  the  present  age  of  the  world  by  the  lignites  of  Helms- 
dale, Eathie,  and  Eigg,  —  and  when  the  plants  of  a  former 
creation  lay  dead  and  buried  deep  beneath,  in  shales  and  fire- 
clay, —  existing  as  vast  beds  of  coal,  or  entombed  in  solid 
rock,  as  the  brown  massy  trunks  of  Granton  and  Craigleith. 
And  even  ere  these  last  existed  as  living  trees,  the  conifer- 
ous lignite  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  found  at  Cro- 
marty had  passed  into  the  fossil  state,  and  lay  as  a  semi- 
21* 


246  LAMARCKIAN    HYPOTHESIS 

calcareous,  semi-bituminous  mass,  amid  perished  Dlpterians 
and  extinct  Coccoslei.  So  much  for  the  Geology  of  the  Ger- 
man Professor.  And  be  it  remarked,  that  the  actuaHties  in 
this  question  can  be  determined  by  only  the  geologist.  The 
mere  naturalist  may  indicate  from  the  analogies  of  his  science, 
what  possibly  might  have  taken  place ;  but  what  really  did 
take  place,  and  the  true  order  in  which  the  events  occurred, 
it  is  the  part  of  the  geologist  to  determine.  It  cannot  be  out 
of  place  to  remark,  further,  that  geological  discovery  is  in  no 
degree  responsible  for  the  infidelity  of  the  development 
hypothesis ;  seeing  that,  in  the  first  place,  the  hypothesis 
is  greatly  more  ancient  than  the  discoveries,  and,  in  the  second, 
that  its  more  prominent  assertors  are  exactly  the  men  who 
know  least  of  geological  fact.  But  to  this  special  point  I 
shall  again  refer. 

The  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  "  is  at  one,  regarding  the  sup- 
posed marine  origin  of  terrestrial  plants,  with  Maillet  and 
Oken ;  and  he  regards  the  theory,  we  find  him  stating  in  his 
"  Explanations,"  as  the  true  key  to  the  well-established  fact, 
that  the  vegetation  of  groupes  of  islands  generally  corre- 
sponds with  that  of  the  larger  masses  of  land  in  their  neigh- 
borhood. Marine  plants  of  the  same  kinds  crept  out  of  the 
sea,  it  would  seem,  upon  the  islands  on  the  one  hand,  and 
upon  the  larger  masses  of  land  on  the  other,  and  thus  pro- 
duced the  same  flora  in  each ;  just  as  tadpoles,  after  passing 
their  transition  state,  creep  out  of  their  canal  or  river  on  the 
opposite  banks,  and  thus  give  to  the  fields  or  meadows  on  the 
right-hand  side  a  supply  of  frogs,  of  the  same  appearance 
and  size  as  those  poured  out  upon  the  fields  and  meadows  of 
the  left.  "  Thus,  for  example,"  we  find  him  saying,  "  the 
Galapagos  exhibit  general  characters  in  common  with  South 
America;  and  the  Cape  de  Verd  islands,  with  Africa.    They 


OF    THE    ORIGIN    OF    PLANTS.  247 

are,  in  Mr.  Darwin's  lappy  phrase,  satellites  to  those  continents, 
in  respect  of  natural  history.  Again,"  he  continues,  "  when 
masses  of  land  are  only  divided  from  each  other  by  narrow 
seas,  thee  is  usually  a  community  of  forms.  The  European 
and  African  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  present  an  example. 
Our  own  islands  afford  another  of  far  higher  value.  It  appears 
that  the  flora  of  Ireland  and  Great  Britain  is  various,  or 
rather  that  we  have  five  floras  or  distinct  sets  of  plants,  and 
that  each  of  these  is  partaken  of  by  a  portion  of  the  opposite 
continent.  There  are,  first,  a  flora  confined  to  the  west  of 
Ireland,  and  imparted  likewise  to  the  north-west  of  Spain  ; 
second,  a  flora  in  the  south-west  promontory  of  England  and 
of  Ireland,  extending  across  the  Channel  to  the  north-west 
coast  of  France  ;  third,  one  common  to  the  south-east  of  Eng- 
land and  north  of  France  ;  fourth,  an  Alpine  flora  developed 
in  the  Scottish  and  Welsh  Highlands,  and  intimately  related 
CO  that  of  the  Norwegian  Alps  ;  fifth,  a  flora  which  prevails 
over  a  large  part  of  England  and  Ireland,  '  mingled  with 
other  floras,  and  diminishing  slightly  as  we  proceed  west- 
ward : '  this  bears  intimate  relation  with  the  flora  of  Ger- 
many. Facts  so  remarkable  would  force  the  meanest  fact- 
collector  or  species-demonstrator  into  generalization.  The 
really  ingenious  man  who  lately  brought  them  under  notice 
(Professor  Edward  Forbes)  could  only  surmise,  as  their  ex- 
planation, that  the  spaces  now  occupied  by  the  intermediate 
seas  must  have  been  dry  land  at  tha  time  when  these  floras 
were  created.  In  that  case,  either  the  original  arrangement 
of  the  floras,  or  the  selection  of  land  for  submergence,  musi 
have  been  apposite  to  the  case  in  a  degree  far  from  usual. 
The  necessity  for  a  simpler  cause  is  obvious,  and  it  is  found  in 
the  hypothesis  of  a  spread  of  terresirial  vegetation  from  the  sea 
into  the  lands  adjacent.    The  community  of  forms  in  the  vari- 


248  LAMAECKIAN    HYPOTHESIS 

ous  regions  opposed  to  each  other  merely  indicates  a  distinct 
marine  creation  in  each  of  the  oceanic  areas  respectively 
interposed,  and  which  would  naturally  advance  into  the  lands 
nearest  to  it,  as  far  as  circumstances  of  soil  and  climate  were 
found  agreeable." 

Such,  regarding  the  origin  of  terrestrial  vegetation,  are  the 
views  of  Maillet,  Oken,  and  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges." 
They  all  agree  in  holding  that  the  plants  of  the  land  existed 
in  their  first  condition  as  weeds  of  the  sea. 

Let  me  request  the  reader  at  this  stage,  ere  we  pass  on  to 
the  consideration  of  the  experience-argument,  to  remark  a 
few  incidental,  but  by  no  means  unimportant,  consequences 
of  the  belief.  And,  first,  let  him  weigh  for  a  moment  the 
comparative  demands  on  his  credulity  of  the  theory  by  which 
Professor  Forbes  accounts  for  the  various  floras  of  ^he  Brit- 
ish Islands,  and  that  hypothesis  of  transmutation  which 
the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  "  would  so  fain  put  in  its  place,  as 
greatly  more  simple,  and,  of  course,  more  in  accordance  with 
:he  principles  of  human  belief.  In  order  to  the  reception  of 
ihe  Professor's  theory,  it  is  necessary  to  hold,  in  the  first  place, 
that  the  creation  of  each  species  of  plant  took  place,  not  by 
repetition  of  production  in  various  widely-separated  cen- 
tres, but  in  some  single  centre,  from  which  the  species  prop- 
agated itself  by  seed,  bud,  or  scion,  across  the  special  area 
which  it  is  now  found  to  occupy.  And  this,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, is  of  course  as  much  an  assumption  as  any  of  those 
assumed  numbers  or  assumed  lines  with  which,  in  algebra 
and  the  mathematics,  it  is  necessary  in  so  many  calculations 
to  set  out,  in  quest  of  some  required  number  or  line,  which, 
without  the  assistance  of  the  assumed  ones,  we  might  de- 
spair of  ever  finding.  But  the  assumption  is  in  itself  neither 
unnatural  tl  r  violent ;  there  are  various  very  remarkable  anal- 


OF    THE    ORIGIN    OF    PLANTS.  249 

ogies  which  lend  it  support ;  the  facts  which  seem  least  to 
harmonize  with  it  are  not  wholly  irreconcilable,  and  are, 
besides,  of  a  merely  exceptional  character ;  and,  further,  it 
has  been  adopted  by  botanists  of  the  highest  standing.*     It 


•  The  following  digest  from  Professor  Balfour's  very  admi- 
rable "  Manual  of  Botany,"  of  what  is  held  on  this  curious  sub- 
ject, may  be  not  unacceptable  to  the  reader.  "  It  is  an  interesting 
question  to  determine  the  mode  in  which  the  various  species  and 
tribes  of  plants  were  originally  scattered  over  the  globe.  Vari- 
ous hj'potheses  have  been  advanced  on  the  subject.  Linnaeus  en- 
tertained the  opinion  that  there  was  at  first  only  one  primitive 
centre  of  vegetation,  from  which  plants  were  distributed  over  the 
globe.  Some,  avoiding  all  discussions  and  difficulties,  suppose  that 
plants  were  produced  at  first  in  the  localities  where  they  are  now 
seen  vegetating.  Others  think  that  each  species  of  plant  originated 
in,  and  was  diffused  from,  a  single  primitive  centre ;  and  that  there 
were  numerous  such  centres  situated  in  different  parts  of  the  world, 
each  centre  being  the  seat  of  a  particular  number  of  species.  They 
thus  admit  great  vegetable  migratiens,  similar  to  those  of  the  human 
races.  Those  who  adopt  the  latter  view  recognize  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  plants  some  of  the  last  revolutions  of  our.  planet,  and  the 
action  of  numerous  and  varied  forces,  which  impede  or  favor  the 
dissemination  of  vegetables  in  the  present  day.  They  endeavor  to 
ascertain  the  primitive  flora  of  countries,  and  to  trace  the  vegetable 
migrations  which  have  taken  place.  Daubeny  says,  that  analogy 
favors  the  supposition  that  each  species  of  plant  was  originally 
formed  in  some  particular  locality,  whence  it  spread  itself  gradu- 
ally over  a  certain  area,  rather  than  that  the  earth  was  at  once, 
by  the  fiat  of  the  Almighty,  covered  with  vegetation  in  the  manner 
•we  at  present  behold  it.  The  human  race  rose  from  a  single  pair ; 
and  the  distribution  of  plants  and  animals  over  a  certain  definite 
area  would  seem  to  imply  that  the  same  was  the  general  law.  Anal- 
ogy would  lead  us  to  believe  that  the  extension  of  species  over  the 
eartli  originally  took  place  on  the  same  plan  on  which  it  is  con- 
ducted at  present,  when  a  new  island  starts  up  in  the  midst  of 
the  ocear,  produced  either  by  a  coral  reef  or  a  volcano.  In  these 
cases  the  whole  surface  is  not  at  once  overspread  with  plants,  but 
a  gradual  progress  of  vegetation  is  traced  from  the  accidental  intro- 


250  CONSEQUENCES 

is  necessary  t4  hold,  in  the  second  place,  in  order  to  the  re 
ception  of  the  theory,  that  the  area  of  the  earth's  surface 
occupied  by  the  British  Islands  and  the  neighboring  coasts 
of  the  Continent  once  StOod  fifty  fathoms  higher,  in  relation 
to  the  existing  sea-level,  than  it  does  now,  —  a  belief  which, 
whatever  its  specific  grounds  or  standing  in  this  particular 
case,  is  at  least  in  strict  accordance  with  the  general  geologi- 
cal phenomena  of  subsidence  and  elevation,  and  which,  so  far 
from  outraging  any  experience  founded  on  observation  or 
testimony,  runs  in  the  same  track  with  what  is  known  of 
wide  areas  now  in  the  course  of  sinking,  like  that  on  the 
Italian  coast,  in  which  the  Bay  of  Baise  and  the  ruins  of  the 
temple  of  Serapls  occur,  or  that  in  Asia,  which  includes  the 
Run  of  Cutch  ;  or  of  what  is  known  of  areas  in  the  course  of 
rising,  like  part  of  the  coast  of  Sweden,  or  part  of  the  coast 
oC  South  America,  or  in  Asia  along  the  western  shores  of 
Aracan.  Whereas,  in  order  to  close  with  the  simpler  an- 
"^agonistic  belief  of  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges,"  it  is  neces- 
sary to  hold,  contrary  to  all  experience,  that  dulce  and  hen- 
ware  *  became,  through  a  very  wonderful  metamorphosis, 
cabbage  and  spinnage  ;  that  kelp-weed  and  tangle  bour- 
geoned into  oaks  and  willows  ;  and  that  slack,  rope-weed,  and 
green-raw,f  shot  up  into  mangel-wurzel,  rye-grass,  and  clover. 
Simple,  certainly  !  An  infidel  on  terms  such  as  these  could 
with  no  propriety  be  regarded  as  an  unbeliever.     It  is  well 


duction  of  a  single  seed,  perhaps,  of  each  species,  -wafted  by  winds 
or  floated  by  currents.  The  remarkable  limitation  of  certain  species 
to  single  spots  on  the  globe  seems  to  favor  the  supposition  of  specific 
centres." 

♦  Rhodomenia  palmata  and  Alaria  esctdenta. 

t  Porphyra  lamiiata,  Chorda  Jilum,  and  Enteromorpha  compressor 


OF   THE   LAMAKCKIAN   HYPOTHESIS  251 

that  the  New  Testament  makes  no  such  extraordmary  de. 
mands  on  human  credulity. 

Let  us  remark  Further,  at  this  stage,  that,  judging  from  the 
generally  received  geological  evidence  in  the  case,  very  little 
time  seems  to  be  allowed  by  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  " 
jor  that  miraculous  process  of  transmutation  through  which 
the  low  algae  of  our  sea-shores  are  neld  to  have  passed  into 
high  orders  of  plants  wh'ch  constitute  the  prevailing  British 
flora.  The  boulder  clay,  which  rises  so  high  along  our  hills,  and 
which,  as  shown  by  its  inferior  position  on  the  lower  grounds, 
is  decidedly  the  most  ancient  of  the  country's  superficial  de- 
posits, is  yet  so  modern,  geologically,  that  it  contains  only 
recent  shells.  It  belongs  to  that  cold,  glacial,  post-Tertiary 
period,  in  which  what  is  now  Britain  existed  as  a  few 
groupes  of  insulated  hill-tops,  bearing  the  semi-arctic  vegetation 
of  our  fourth  flora, —  that  true  Celtic  flora  of  the  country 
which  we  now  find,  like  the  country's  Celtic  races  of  our 
own  species,  cooped  up  among  the  mountains.  The  fifth  or 
Germanic  flora  must  have  been  introduced,  it  is  held,  at  a 
later  period,  when  the  climate  had  greatly  meliorated.  And 
if  we  are  to  hold  that  the  plants  of  this  last  flora  were  devtC- 
oped  from  sea- weed,  not  propagated  across  a  continuity  of 
land  from  the  original  centre  in  Germany,  or  borne  by  cur- 
rents from  the  mouths  of  the  Germanic  rivers, —  the  theory 
of  Mon.  C.  Martins,  —  then  must  we  also  hold  that  that  de- 
velopment took  place  since  the  times  of  the  boulder  clay,  and 
that  fucoids  and  confervas  became  dicotyledonous  and  iroKO- 
cotyledonous  plants  during  a  brief  period,  in  which  the  Pur- 
pura lapillus  and  TurrileUa  lerebra  did  not  alter  a  single 
whorl,  and  the  Cyprina  islandica  and  Astarte  borealis  re- 
tained unchanged  each  minute  projection  of  their  hinges,  and 
each  nicer  peculiarity  of  their  muscular  impressions.     Crea- 


252  CONSEQUENCES 

tio7i  would  be  greatly  less  wonderful  than  a  sudden  transmu 
tativf  process  such  as  this,  restricted  in  its  operation  to  groupes 
of  English,  Irish,  and  Manx  plants,  identical  with  groupes  in 
Germany,  when  all  the  various  organisms  around  them,  such 
as  our  sea-shells,  continued  to  be  exactly  what  they  had  been 
for  ages  before.  A  process  of  development  from  the  lowest 
to  the  highest  forms,  rigidly  restricted  to  the  flora  of  a  coun- 
try, would  be  simply  the  miracle  of  Jonah's  gourd  several 
t[iousand  times  repeated. 

I  must  here  indulge  in  a  few  remarks  more,  which,  though 
they  may  seem  of  an  incidental  character,  have  a  direct  bear- 
ing on  the  general  subject.  The  geologist  infers,  in  all  his 
reasonings  founded  on  fossils,  that  a  race  or  species  has  ex- 
isted from  some  one  certain  point  in  the  scale  to  some  other 
certain  point,  if  he  find  it  occurring  at  both  points  together. 
He  infers  on  this  principle,  for  instance,  that  the  boulder  clay, 
which  contains  only  recent  shells,  belongs  to  the  recent  or 
post-Tertiary  period;  and  that  the  Oolite  and  Lias,  which 
contain  no  recent  shells,  represent  a  period  whose  existences 
have  all  become  extinct.  And  all  experience  serves  to  show 
that  his  principle  is  a  sound  one.  In  creation  there  are  many 
species  linked  together,  from  their  degree  of  similarity,  by 
the  generic  tie  ;  but  no  perfect  verisimilitude  obtains  among 
them,  unless  hereditarily  derived  from  the  one,  two,  or  more 
individuals,  of  contemporary  origin,  with  which  the  race  be- 
gan. True,  there  are  some  races  that  have  spread  over  very 
wide  circles,  —  the  circle  of  the  human  family  has  become 
identical  with  that  of  the  globe  ;  and  there  are  certain  plants 
and  animals  that,  from  peculiar  powers  of  adaptation  to  the 
varieties  of  soil  and  climate,  —  mayhap  also  from  the  tena- 
cious vitality  of  their  seeds,  and  their  facilities  of  transport  by 
natural  means,  —  are  likewise  diffused  very  widely.     There 


OF  THE  LAMARCKIAN  HYPOTHESIS.  253 

are  plants,  too,  such  as  the  common  nettle  and  some  of  the 
ordinary  grasses,  which  accompany  civilized  man  all  over  the 
globe,  he  scarce  knows  how,  and  spring  up  unbidden  where- 
ever  he  fixes  his  habitation.  He,  besides,  carries  with  him 
the  common  agricultural  weeds  :  there  are  localities  in  the 
United  States,  says  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  where  these  exotics  out- 
jiumber  the  native  plants ;  but  these  are  exceptions  to  the 
prevailing  economy  of  distribution ;  and  the  circles  of  species 
generally  are  comparatively  limited  and  well  defined.  The 
mountains  of  the  southern  hemisphere  have,  like  those  of 
Switzerland  and  the  Scotch  Highlands,  their  forests  of  coniferous 
trees  ;  but  they  furnish  no  Swiss  pines  or  Scotch  firs ;  nor  do 
the  coasts  of  New  Zealand  or  Van  Dieman's  Land  supply 
the  European  shells  or  fish.  True,  there  may  be  much  to 
puzzle  in  the  identity  of  what  may  be  termed  the  exceptional 
plants,  equally  indigenous,  apparently,  in  circles  widely  sep- 
arated by  space.  It  has  been  estimated  that  there  exist 
about  a  hundred  thousand  vegetable  species,  and  of  these, 
thirty  Antarctic  forms  have  been  recognized  by  Dr.  Hooker 
as  identical  with  European  ones.  Had  Robinson  Crusoe  failed 
to  remember  that  he  had  shaken  the  old  corn-bag  where  he 
found  the  wheat  and  barley  ears  springing  up  on  his  island, 
he  might  have  held  that  he  had  discovered  a  new  centre  of 
the  European  cerealia.  And  the  process  analogous  to  the 
shaking  of  the  bag  is  frequently  a  process  not  to  be  remem- 
bered. There  are  several  minute  lochans  in  the  Hebrides 
and  the  west  of  Ireland  in  which  there  occurs  a  small  plant 
of  the  cord-rush  family,  (Eriocaulon  septangulare,)  which, 
though  common  in  America,  is  nowhere  to  be  found  on  the 
European  Continent.  It  is  the  only  British  plant  which  be- 
longs to  no  other  part  of  Europe.  How  was  it  transpcrted 
across  the  Atlantic  ?  Entangled,  mayhap,  in  the  form  of  a 
22 


254  CONSEQUENCES 

single  seed,  —  for  its  seeds  are  exceedingly  light  and  small, 
—  in  the  plumage  of  some  water-fowl,  free  of  both  sea  and 
lake,  It  had  been  carried  in  the  germ  from  the  weed-skirted 
edge  of  some  American  swamp  or  mere,  to  some  mossy 
lochan  of  Connaught  or  of  Skye  ;  and  one  such  seed  trans- 
ported by  one  such  accident,  unique  in  its  occurrence  in 
thousands  of  years,  would  be  quite  sufficient  to  puzzle  all  the 
botanists  forever  after,  I  have  seen  the  seed  of  one  of  our 
Scotch  grasses,  that  had  been  originally  caught  in  the  matted 
fleece  of  a  sheep  reared  among  the  hills  of  Sutherland,  and 
then  wrought  into  a  coarse,  ill-dressed  woollen  cloth,  carried 
about  for  months  in  a  piece  of  underclothing.  It  might  have 
gone  over  half  the  globe  in  that  time,  and,  when  cast  away 
with  the  worn  vestment,  might  have  originated  a  new  circle 
for  its  species  in  South  America  or  New  Holland.  There  are 
seeds  specially  contrived  by  the  Great  Designer  to  be  carried 
far  from  their  original  habitats  in  the  coats  of  animals,  —  a 
mode  which  admits  of  transport  to  much  greater  distances 
than  the  mode,  also  extensively  operative,  of  consigning 
them  for  conveyance  to  their  stomachs ;  and  when  we  see 
the  work  in  its  effects,  we  are  puzzled  by  the  want  of  a 
record  of  an  emigratory  process,  of  which,  in  the  circum- 
stances, no  record  could  possibly  exist.  Unable  to  make  out 
a  case  for  the  "  shaking  of  the  bag,"  we  bethink  us,  in  the 
emergency,  of  repetition  of  creation.  But  in  circles  separat- 
ed by  time,  not  space,  —  by  time,  across  whose  dim  gulfs  no 
voyager  sails,  and  no  bird  flies,  and  over  which  there  are  no 
means  of  transport  from  the  point  where  a  race  once  fails, 
to  any  other  point  in  the  future,  —  we  find  no  repetition  of 
species.  If  the  production  of  perject  duplicates  or  tripli- 
cates in  independent  centres  were  a  law  of  nature,  our  works 
of  physical  science  could  scarce  fail  to  tell  us  of  identical 


OF  THE  LAMARCKIAN  HYPOTHESIS.  255 

species  fouad  occurring  in  widely-separated  systems,  —  Scotch 
firs  and  larches,  for  instance,  among  the  lignites  of  the  Lias, 
or  Cyprina  islandica  and  Ostrea  edulis  among  the  shells  of 
the  Mountain  Limestone.  But  never  yet  has  the  geologist 
found  in  his  systems  or  formations  any  such  evidence  as  facts 
such  as  these  might  be  legitimately  held  to  furnish,  of  the 
mdependent  de  novo  production  of  individual  members  of 
any  single  species.  On  tlie  contrary,  the  evidence  lies  so  en- 
tirely the  other  way,  that  he  reasons  on  the  existence  of  a 
family  relation  obtaining  between  all  the  members  of  each 
species,  as  one  of  his  best  established  principles.  If  mem- 
bers of  the  same  species  may  exist  through  de  novo  produc- 
tion, without  hereditary  relationship,  so  thoroughly,  in  con- 
sequence, does  the  fabric  of  geological  reasoning  fall  to  the 
ground,  that  we  find  ourselves  incapacitated  from  regarding 
even  the  bed  of  common  cockle  or  mussel  shells,  which  we 
find  lying  a  few  feet  from  the  surface  on  our  raised  beaches, 
as  of  the  existing  creation  at  all.  Nay,  even  the  human  re- 
mains of  our  moors  may  have  belonged,  if  our  principle  of 
relationship  in  each  species  be  not  a  true  one,  to  some  for- 
mer creation,  cut  off  from  that  to  which  we  ourselves  belong, 
by  a  wide  period  of  death.  All  palseontological  reasoning  is 
at  an  end  forever,  if  identical  species  can  originate  in  in- 
dependent centres,  widely  separated  from  each  other  by  pe- 
riods of  time ;  and  if  they  fail  to  originate  in  periods  sepa- 
rated by  time,  how  or  why  in  centres  separated  by  space  ? 

Let  the  reader  remark  further,  the  bearing  of  those  facts 
from  M^iich  this  principle  of  geological  reasoning  has  been 
derived,  on  the  development  hypothesis.  We  find  species 
restricted  to  circles  and  periods ;  and  though  stragglers  are 
occasionally  found  outside  the  circle  in  the  existing  state 
of  thiags,  never  are  they  found  beyond  their^  period  among 


256  CONSEQUENCES 

the  remains  of  the  past.  It  was  profoundly  argued  by  Cu- 
vier,  that  life  could  not  possibly  have  had  a  chemical  origin. 
"  In  fact,"  we  find  him  remarking,  "  life  exercising  upon  the 
elements  which  at  every  instant  form  part  of  the  living  body, 
and  upon  those  which  it  attracts  to  it,  an  action  contrary  to 
that  which  would  be  produced  without  it  by  the  usual  chem- 
ical affinities,  it  is  inconsistent  to  suppose  that  it  can  itself 
be  produced  by  these  affinities."  And  the  phenomena  of  re- 
striction to  circle  and  period  testify  to  the  same  effect.  Noth 
ing,  on  the  one  hand,  can  be  more  various  in  character  and 
aspect  than  the  organized  existences  of  the  various  circles 
and  periods  ;  nothing  more  invariable,  on  the  other,  than  the 
results  of  chemical  or  electrical  experiment.  And  yet,  to  use 
almost  the  words  of  Cuvier,  "  we  know  of  no  other  power  in 
nature  capable  of  reuniting  previously  separated  molecules," 
than  the  electric  and  the  chemical.  To  these  agents,  accord- 
ingly, all  the  assertors  of  the  development  hypothesis  have  had 
recourse  for  at  least  the  origination  of  life.  Air,  water,  earth 
existing  as  a  saline  mucus,  and  an  active  persistent  electri- 
city, are  the  creative  ingredients  of  Oken.  The  author  of  the 
"Vestiges"  is  rather  less  explicit  on  the  subject:  he  simply 
refers  to  the  fact,  that  the  "  basis  of  all  vegetable  and  animal 
substances  consists  of  nucleated  cells,  —  that  is,  of  cells  having 
granules  within  them;"  and  states  that  globules  of  a  resem- 
bling character  "  can  be  produced  in  albumen  by  electrici- 
ty ;  "  and  that  though  albumen  itself  has  not  yet  been  pro- 
duced by  artificial  means,  —  the  only  step  in  the  process  of 
creation  which  is  wanting, — it  is  yet  known  to  be  a  chemical 
composition,  the  mode  of  whose  production  may  "  be  any 
day  discovered  in  the  laboratory."  Further,  he  adopts,  as 
part  of  the  foundation  of  his  hypothesis,  the  pseudo-experi- 
ment of  Mr.  Weekes,  who  holds  that  out  of  certain  saline 


OF    THE    LAMAECKIAN    HYPOTHESIS.  257 

preparations,  acti;d  upon  by  electricity,  he  can  produce  cer 
tain  living  animalcula  of  the  mite  family  ;  —  the  vital  and  th( 
organized  out  of  the  inorganic  and  the  dead.  In  all  sucl" 
cases,  electricity,  or  rather,  according  to  Oken,  galvanism,  i& 
'egarded  as  the  vitalizing  principle.  "  Or^a«is?M,"  says  the 
German,   "  is  galvanism  residing  in  a  thoroughly  homogenO' 

ous  mass A  galvanic   pile  pounded  into  atoms 

must  become  alive.  In  this  manner  nature  brings  forth  or- 
ganic bodies."  I  have  even  heard  it  seriously  asked  whether 
electricity  be  not  God  !  Alas !  could  such  a  god,  limited 
in  its  capacity  of  action,  like  those  "  gods  of  the  plains  "  in 
which  the  old  Syrian  trusted,  have  wrought,  in  the  character 
of  Creator,  with  a  variety  of  result  so  endless,  that  in  no  geo- 
logic period  has  repetition  taken  place  .?  In  all  that  purports 
to  be  experiment  on  the  development  side  of  the  question,  we 
see  nothing  else  save  repetition.  The  Acarus  Crossi  of  Mr. 
Weekes  is  not  a  new  species,  but  the  repetition  of  an  old 
one,  which  has  been  long  known  as  the  Acarus  horridus,  a 
little  bristle-covered  creature  of  the  mite  family,  that  harbors 
in  damp  corners  among  the  debris  of  outhouses,  and  the  dust 
and  dirt  of  neglected  workshops  and  laboratories.  Nay,  even 
a  change  in  the  chemical  portion  of  the  experiment  by  which 
he  believed  the  creature  to  be  produced,  failed  to  secure  va 
riety.  A  powerful  electric  current  had  been  sent,  in  the  firsl 
instance,  through  a  solution  of  silicate  of  potash,  and,  after  a 
time,  the  Acarus  horridus  crawled  out  of  the  fluid.  The  cur- 
rent was  then  sent  through  a  solution  of  nitrate  of  copper,  ai;d 
after  a  due  space,  the  Acarus  horridus  again  creeped  out.  A 
solution  of  ferro-cyanate  of  potash  was  next  subjected  to  the 
current,  and  yet  again,  and  in  greater  numbers  than  on  tho 
two  former  occasions,  there  appeared,  as  in  virtue,  it  would 
seem,  of  its  extraordinary  appetency,  to  be  the  same  ever- 
22* 


258  CONSEQUENCES 

recurring  Acariis  Jiorridus.  How,  or  in  what  form,  the  little 
creature  should  have  been  introduced  into  the  several  experi- 
ments, it  is  not  the  part  of  those  who  question  their  legiti- 
macy to  explain  ;  it  is  enough  for  us  to  know,  that  individ- 
uals of  the  family  to  which  the  Acarus  belongs  are  so  re- 
markable for  their  powers  of  life,  even  in  their  fully  developed 
state,  as  to  resist,  for  a  time,  the  application  of  boiling  water, 
and  to  live  long  ip  alcohol.  We  know,  further,  that  the 
germs  of  the  lower  animals  are  greatly  more  tenacious  of  vi- 
tality than  the  animals  themselves ;  and  that  they  may  exist 
in  their  state  of  embryonism  iii  the  most  unthought  of  and 
elusive  forms;  nay,  —  as  the  recent  discoveries  regarding  al- 
tsrations  of  generation  have  conclusively  shown,  —  that  the 
germ  which  produced  the  parent  may  be  wholly  unlike  the 
germ  that  produces  its  offspring,  and  yet  identical  with  that 
which  produced  the  parent's  parent.  Save  on  the  theory  of 
a  quiescent  vitality,  maintained  by  seeds  for  centuries  within 
a  few  inches  of  the  earth's  surface,  we  know  not  how  a  layer 
of  shell,  sand,  or  marl,  spread  over  the  bleak  moors  of  Har- 
ris, should  produce  crops  of  white  clover,  where  only  heath 
had  grown  before  ;  nor  how  brakes  of  doddered  furze  burnt 
down  on  the  slopes  of  the  Cromarty  Sutors  should  be  so  fre- 
quently succeeded  by  thickets  of  raspberry.  We  are  not, 
however  to  give  up  the  unknown,  —  that  illimitable  province  in 
which  science  discovers, — to  be  a  wild  region  of  dream,  in 
which  fantasy  may  invent.  There  are  many  dark  places  in  the 
field  of  human  knowledge  which  even  the  researches  of  ages 
may  fail  wholly  to  enlighten ;  but  no  one  derives  a  right 
from  that  circumstance  to  people  them  with  chimeras  and 
phantoms.  They  belong  to  the  philosophers  of  the  future, — 
not  to  the  visionaries  of  the  present.  But  while  it  is  not  our 
part  to  explain  how,  in  the  experiments  of  Mr.  Weekes,  th« 


OF   THE    LAMARCKIAN   HYPOTHESIS.  259 

chain  :f  life  from  life  has  been  maintained  unbroken,  we 
can  most  conclusively  show,  that  that  world  of  organized 
existence  of  which  we  ourselves  form  part,  is,  and  ever  has 
been,  a  world,  not  of  tame  repetition,  but  of  endless  variety. 
It  is  palpably  not  a  world  of  Acaridte  of  one  species,  nor 
yet  of  creatures  developed  from  these,  under  those  electric 
or  chemical  laws  of  which  the  grand  characteristic  is  inva- 
riability of  result.  The  vast  variety  of  its  existences  speak 
not  of  the  operation  of  unvarying  laws,  that  represent,  in 
their  uniformity  of  result,  the  unchangeableness  of  the  Di- 
vinity, but  of  creative  acts,  that  exemplify  the  infinity  of  His 
resources. 

Let  the  reader  yet  further  remark,  if  he  has  followed  me 
through  these  preliminary  observations,  what  is  really  in- 
volved in  the  hypothesis  of  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges,"  re- 
garding the  various  floras  common  to  the  British  islands  and 
the  Continent.  If  it  was  upon  his  scheme  that  England,  Ire- 
land, and  the  mainland  of  Europe  came  to  possess  an  identi- 
cal flora,  produstion  de  novo  and  by  repetition  of  the  same 
species  must  have  taken  place  in  thousands  of  instances  along 
the  shores  of  each  island  and  of  the  mainland.  His  hypothe- 
sis demands  that  the  sea-weed  on  the  coast  of  Ireland  should 
have  been  developed,  first  through  lower,  and  then  higher 
forms,  into  thousands  of  terrestrial  plants,  —  that  exactlj' 
the  same  process  of  development  from  sea-weed  into  terres- 
trial plants  of  the  same  species  should  have  taken  place  on 
the  coast  of  England,  and  again  on  the  coasts  of  the  Con- 
tinent generally,  —  and  that  identically  the  same  vegetation 
shou^  d  have  been  originated  in  this  way  in  at  least  three  great 
centres.  And  if  plants  of  the  same  species  could  have  had 
three  distinct  centres  of  organization  and  development,  why 
not  three  hundred,  or  three  thousand,  or  three  hundred  thou- 


260  CONSEQUENCES 

sand  ?  Nor  will  it  do  to  attempt  escaping  from  the  difficulty, 
by  alleging  that  there  is  the  groundwork  in  the  case  of  at 
least  a  common  marine  vegetation  to  start  from  ;  and  that 
thus,  "f  we  have  not  properly  the  existence  of  the  direct 
hereditary  tie  among  the  various  individuals  of  each  species, 
we  may  yet  recognize  at  least  a  sort  of  collateral  relationship 
among  them,  derived  from  the  relationship  of  their  marine 
ancestry.  For  relationship,  in  even  the  primary  stage,  the 
author  of  the  "  Vestiges  "  virtually  repudiates,  by  adopting, 
as  one  of  the  foundations  of  his  hypothesis,  with,  of  course, 
all  the  legitimate  consequences,  the  experiments  of  Mr. 
Weekes.  The  animalculse-making  process  is  instanced  as 
representative  of  the  first  stage  of  being,  —  that  in  which 
dead  inorganic  matter  assumes  vitality ;  and  it  corresponds, 
in  the  zoological  branch,  to  the  production  of  a  low  marine 
vegetation  in  the  phytological  one.  A  certain  semi-chemical, 
semi-electrical  process,  originates,  time  after  time,  certain 
numerous  low  forms  of  life,  identical  in  species,  but  con- 
nected by  no  tie  of  relationship  :  such  is  the  presumed  result 
of  the  Weekes  experiment.  A  certain  further  process  of 
development  matures  low  forms  of  life,  thus  originated,  into 
higher  species,  also  identical,  and  also  wholly  unconnected 
by  the  family  tie  :  such  are  the  consequences  legitimately 
involved  in  that  island-vegetation  theory  promulgated  by  the 
author  of  the  "  Vestiges."  And  be  it  remembered  that  Mr. 
Weekes'  process,  so  far  as  it  is  simply  electrical  and  chemical, 
is  a  process  which  is  as  capable  of  having  been  gone  through 
in  all  times  and  all  places,  as  that  other  process  of  strewing 
marl  upon  a  moor,  through  which  certain  rustic  experimenters 
have  held  that  they  produced  white  clover.  It  could  have 
been  gone  through  during  the  Carboniferous  or  the  Silurian 
period ;    for   all  truly  chemical  and  electrical   experiments 


OF  THE  LAMAICKIAN  HYPOTHESIS.  261 

would  hav  3  resulted  in  manifestations  of  the  same  phenom- 
ena then  as  now ;  —  an  acid  would  have  effervesced  as  freely 
with  an  alkali;  and  each  fibre  of  an  electrified  feather  — 
had  feathers  then  existed  —  would  have  stood  out  as  decided- 
ly apart  from  all  its  neighbors.  We  must  therefore  hold,  if 
we  believe  with  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges,"  first,  from  the 
Weekes  experiment,  that  in  all  times,  and  in  all  places,  every 
centre  of  a  certain  chemical  and  electric  action  would  have 
become  a  new  centre  of  creation  to  certain  recent  species  of 
low,  but  not  very  low,  organization ;  and,  second,  from  his 
doctrine  regarding  the  identity  of  the  British  and  Continental 
floras,  that  in  the  course  of  subsequent  development  from 
these  low  forms,  the  process  in  each  of  many  widely-sepa- 
rated centres,  —  widely  separated  both  by  space  and  time,  — 
would  be  so  nicely  correspondent  with  the  process  in  all 
the  others,  that  the  same  higher  recent  forms  would  be  ma- 
tured in  all.  And  to  doctrines  such  as  these,  the  experience 
of  all  Geologists,  all  Phytologists,  all  Zoologists,  is  diametri- 
cally opposed.  If  t'lese  doctrines  be  true,  their  sciences  are 
false  in  their  facts,  r  nd  'die  and  unfounded  in  their  principles. 


262  THE    TWO   FLORAS, 


THE  'nVO  FLOKAS,  MARINE  AND  TERRESTIUAL. 

BEAKINlj    OF    THE    EXPERIENCE    ARGUMENT. 


Is  the  reader  acquainted  with  the  graphic  verse,  and  scarce 
less  graphic  prose,  in  which  Crabbe  describes  the  appear- 
ances presented  by  a  terrestrial  vegetation  affected  by  the 
waters  of  the  sea  ?  In  both  passages,  as  in  all  his  purely 
descriptive  writings,  there  is  a  solidity  of  truthful  observa- 
tion exhibited,  which  triumphs  over  their  general  homeliness 
of  vein. 

"  On  either  side 
Is  level  fen,  a  prospect  wild  and  wide, 
With  dykes  on  either  hand,  by  ocean  self-supplied. 
Far  on  the  right  the  distant  sea  is  seen, 
And  salt  the  springs  that  feed  the  marsh  between ; 
Beneath  an  ancient  bridge  the  straitened  flood 
lloUs  through  its  sloping  banks  of  slimy  mud ; 
Near  it  a  sunken  boat  resists  the  tide, 
That  frets  and  hurries  to  the  opposing  side  ; 
The  rushes  sharp,  that  on  the  borders  grow, 
Bend  their  brown  florets  to  the  stream  below, 
Impure  in  all  its  course,  in  all  its  progress  slow. 
Here  a  grave  Flora  scarcely  deigns  to  bloom, 
Nor  wears  a  rosy  hlush,  nor  sheds  perfume. 
The  few  dull  flowers  that  o'er  the  place  are  spread. 
Partake  the  nature  of  their  fenny  bed ; 
Here  on  its  wiry  stem,  in  rigid  bloom. 
Grows  the  salt  lavender,  that  lacks  perfume  ; 


MARINE    AND   TERRESTRIAL.  263 

Here  the  dwarf  sallows  creep,  the  septfoil  harsh, 
And  the  soft  slimy  mallow  of  the  marsh. 
Low  on  the  ear  the  distant  billows  sound, 
And  just  in  view  appears  their  stony  boimd." 

"  The  ditches  of  a  fen  so  near  the  ocean,"  says  the  poet,  in 
the  note  which  accompanies  this  passage,  "  are  lined  with 
irregular  patches  of  a  coarse-stained  laver;  a  muddy  sedi- 
ment rests  on  the  horse-tail  and  other  perennial  herbs  which 
in  part  conceal  the  shallowness  of  the  stream  ;  a  fat-leaved, 
pale-flowering  scurvy-grass  appears  early  in  tne  year,  and 
the  razor-edged  bullrush  in  the  summer  and  autumn.  The 
fen  itself  has  a  dark  and  saline  herbage  :  there  are  rushes 
and  arrow-head ;  and  in  a  few  patches  the  flakes  of  the  cot- 
ton-grass are  seen,  but  more  commonly  the  sea-aster^  the  dull- 
est of  that  numerous  and  hardy  genus ;  a  thrifty  blue  m 
flower,  but  withering,  and  remaining  withered  till  the  winter 
scatters  it ;  the  salt-wort,  both  simple  and  shrubby ;  a  few 
kinds  of  grass  changed  by  the  soil  and  atmosphere  ;  and  low 
plants  of  two  or  three  denominations,  undistinguished  in  the 
general  view  of  scenery  ;  —  such  is  the  vegetation  of  the  fen 
where  it  is  at  a  small  distance  from  the  ocean." 

And  such  are  the  descriptions  of  Crabbe,  at  once  a  poet 
and  a  botanist.  In  referring  to  the  blue  tint  exhibited  in 
salt- fens  by  the  pink-colored  flower  of  the  thrifty  (^Statice 
Armeria,)  he  might  have  added,  that  the  general  green  of 
the  terrestrial  vegetation  likewise  assumes,  when  subjected 
to  those  modified  marine  influences  under  which  plants  of  the 
land  can  continue  to  live,  a  decided  tinge  of  blue.  It  is  further 
noticeable,  that  the  general  brown  of  at  least  the  larger  algae 
presents,  as  they  creep  upwards  upon  the  beach  to  meet  with 
these,  a  marked  tinge  of  yellow.  The  prevailing  brown  of 
the  one  flora  approximates  towards  yellow,  —  the  prevailing 


264  THE    TWO    FLORAS, 

green  of  the  other  towards  blue ;  and  thus,  instead  of  mu- 
tually merging  into  some  neutral  tint,  they  assume  at  their 
line  of  meeting  directly  antagonistic  hues. 

But  what  does  experience  say  regarding  the  transmutative 
conversion  of  a  marine  into  a  terrestrial  vegetation,  —  that 
experience  on  which  the  sceptic  founds  so  much  ?  As  I 
walked  along  the  green  edge  of  the  Lake  of  Stennis,  selvaged 
by  the  line  of  detached  weeds  with  which  a  recent  gale  had 
strewed  its  shores,  and  marked  that  for  the  first  few  miles 
the  accumulation  consisted  of  marine  algae,  here  and  there 
mixed  with  tufts  of  stunted  reeds  or  rushes,  and  that  as  I  re- 
ceded from  the  sea  it  was  the  algae  that  became  stunted  and 
dwarfish,  and  that  the  reeds,  aquatic  grasses,  and  rushes, 
grown  greatly  more  bulky  in  the  mass,  were  also  more  fully 
developed  individually,  till  at  length  the  marine  vegetation 
altogether  disappeared,  and  the  vegetable  debris  of  the  shore 
became  purely  lacustrine,  —  I  asked  myself  whether  here,  if 
anywhere,  a  transition  flora  between  lake  and  sea  ought  not  to 
be  found  ?  For  many  thousand  years  ere  the  tall  gray  obelisks 
of  Stennis,  whose  forms  I  saw  this  morning  reflected  in  the 
v/ater,  had  been  torn  from  the  quarry,  or  laid  down  in  mystic 
circle  on  their  flat  promontories,  had  this  lake  admitted 
the  waters  of  the  sea,  and  been  salt  in  its  lower  reaches 
and  fresh  in  its  higher.  And  during  this  protracted  period  had 
its  quiet,  well-shattered  bottom  been  exposed  to  no  disturbing 
influences  through  which  the  delicate  process  of  transmu- 
tation could  have  been  marred  or  arrested.  Here,  then,  if 
in  any  circumstances,  ought  we  to  have  had  in  the  broad, 
permanently  brackish  reaches,  at  least  indications  of  a  vege- 
tation intermediate  in  its  nature  between  the  monocotyle- 
dons of  the  lake  and  the  algae  of  the  sea ;  and  yet  not  a 
vestige   of   such   an    intermediate   vegetation   could   I    find 


MARINE    AND   TERRESTRIAL.  265 

among  the  up-piled  debris  of  the  mixed  floras,  marine  and 
Jacustrine.  The  lake  possesses  no  such  intermediate  vege- 
tation. As  the  water  freshens  in  its  middle  reaches,  the 
algoe  become  dwarfish  and  ill-developed  ;  one  species  after 
another  ceases  to  appear,  as  the  habitat  becomes  wholly  un- 
favorable to  it ;  until  at  length  we  find,  instead  of  the 
brown,  rootless,  flowerless  fucoids  and  confervse  of  the  ocean, 
the  green,  rooted,  flower-bearing  flags,  rushes,  and  aquatic 
grasses  of  the  fresh  water.  Many  thousands  of  years  have 
failed  to  originate  a  single  intermediate  plant.  And  such, 
tested  by  a  singularly  extensive  experience,  is  the  general 
evidence. 

There  is  scarce  a  chain-length  of  the  shores  of  Britain  and 
Ireland  that  has  not  been  a  hundred  and  a  hundred  times 
explored  by  the  botanist,  —  keen  to  collect  and  prompt  to 
register  every  rarity  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  ;  but  has  he 
ever  yet  succeeded  in  transferring  to  his  herbarium  a  single 
plant  caught  in  the  transition  state  ?  Nay,  are  there  any  of 
the  laws  under  which  the  vegetable  kingdom  exists  better 
known  than  those  laws  which  fix  certain  species  of  the  algse  to 
certain  zones  of  coast,  in  which  each,  according  to  the  overly- 
ing depth  of  water  and  the  nature  of  the  bottom,  finds  the  only 
habitat  in  which  it  can  exist?  The  rough-stemmed  tangle 
{Laminaria  digit ata)  can  exist  no  higher  on  the  shore  than 
the  low  line  of  ebb  during  stream-tides ;  the  smooth-stemmed 
tangle  {Laminaria  saccharina)  flourishes  along  an  inner  belt, 
partially  uncovered  during  the  ebbs  of  the  larger  neaps; 
the  forked  and  cracker  kelp- weeds  (Fucus  serratus  and  Fucus 
nodosus)  thrive  in  a  zone  still  less  deeply  covered  by  water, 
and  which  even  the  lower  neaps  expose.  And  at  least  one 
other  species  of  kelp- weed,  the  Fucus  vesicuhsus,  occurs  in  a 
zone  higher  still,  though,  as  it  creeps  upwards  on  the  rocky 
?3 


266  THE    TWO    FLORAS, 

beach,  it  loses  ijs  characteristic  bladders,  and  becomes  short 
and  narrow  of  frond.  The  thick  brown  tufts  of  Fucus  canali- 
culatiis,  which  in  the  lower  and  middle  reaches  of  the  Lake 
of  Stennis  I  found  heaped  up  in  great  abundance  along  the 
shores,  also  rises  high  on  rocky  beaches,  —  so  high  in  somo 
instances,  that  during  neap-tides  it  remains  uncovered  by 
the  water  for  days  together.  If,  as  is  not  uncommon,  thevs 
be  an  escape  of  land  springs  along  the  beach,  there  may  be 
found,  where  the  fresh  water  oozes  out  through  the  sand 
and  gravel,  an  upper  terminal  zone  of  the  confervae,  chiefly 
of  a  green  color,  mixed  with  the  ribbon-like  green  laver, 
( Ulva  latissima,)  the  purplish-brown  laver,  {Porphyra  laci- 
niata,)  and  still  more  largely  with  the  green  silky  Ente- 
romorpha,  {E.  compressa.)  *  And  then,  decidedly  within 
the  line  of  the  storm-beaches  of  winter, —  not  unfrequendy 
in  low  sheltered  bays,  such  as  the  Bay  of  Udale  or  of  Nigg, 
where  the  ripple  of  every  higher  flood  washes,  —  we  may 
find  the  vegetation  of  the  land  —  represented  by  the  sen- 
tinels and  picquets  of  its  outposts  —  coming  down,  as  if  to 
meet  with  the  higher-growing  plants  of  the  sea.  In  salt 
marshes  the  two  vegetations  may  be  seen,  if  I  may  so  ex- 
press myself,  dovetailed  together  at  their  edges,  —  at  least  one 
species  of  club-rush  (Scirpus  maritimu^)  and  the  common  salt- 
wort and  glasswort  {Salsola  kali  and  Salicornia  procumbens) 
encroaching  so  far  upon  the  sea  as  to  mingle  whh  a  thinly- 


*  "Dr.  Neill  mentions,"  says  the  Rev.  Mr.  Landsborough,  in  his 
complete  and  very  interesting  "  History  of  British  Sea- Weeds,"  "  that 
on  our  shores  algcc  generally  occupy  zones  in  the  following  order,  be- 
ginning from  deep  Avatcr  :  —  F.  Filum  ;  F.  esculenius  and  bulbosiis  , 
F,  di(/itatus,  sacc/iari/ms,  and  loreus  ;  F.  scrraUis  and  ms/u5;  F.  nodo- 
sus  and  vesicuhsus ;  F.  canaliculatus ;  and,  iast  of  all,  F.  pygmaus; 
which  is  satisfied  if  it  be  within  reach  of  the  spray," 


MAHINE    and   TEREESTRIAL.  267 

scattered  and  sorely-diminished  fucus, —  that  bladderless  va- 
riety of  the  Fucus  vesiculosus  to  which  I  have  already  referred, 
and  which  may  be  detected  in  such  localities,  shooting  forth 
its  minute  brown  fronds  from  the  pebbles.  On  rocky  coasts, 
where  springs  of  fresh  water  come  trickling  down  along  the 
fissures  of  the  precipices,  the  observer  may  see  a  variety  of 
Rhodomenia  palmata  —  the  fresh-water  dulse  of  the  Moray 
Frith  —  creeping  upwards  from  the  lower  limits  of  produc- 
tion, till  just  where  the  common  gray  balanus  ceases  to 
grow.  And  there,  short  and  thick,  and  of  a  bleached  yel- 
low hue,  it  ceases  also  ;  but  one  of  the  commoner  marine 
confervsB,  —  the  Conferva  arcta,  blent  with  a  dwarfed  En- 
teromorpha,  —  commencing  a  very  little  below  where  the 
dulse  ends,  and  taking  its  place,  clothes  over  the  runnels 
with  its  covering  of  green  for  several  feet  higher  :  in  some 
cases,  where  it  is  frequently  washed  by  the  upward  dash  of 
the  waves,  it  rises  above  even  the  flood-line  ;  and  in  some 
crevice  of  the  rock  beside  it,  often  as  low  as  its  upper  edge, 
we  may  detect  stunted  tufts  of  the  sea-pink  or  of  the  scurvy- 
grass.  But  while  there  is  thus  a  vegetation  intermediate  in 
place  between  the  land  and  the  sea,  we  find,  as  if  it  had  been 
selected  purposely  to  confound  the  transmutation  theory, 
that  it  is  in  no  degree  intermediate  in  character.  For,  while 
it  is  chiefly  marine  weeds  of  the  lower  division  of  the  con- 
fervse  that  creep  upwards  from  the  sea  to  meet  the  vegeta- 
tion of  the  land,  it  is  chiefly  terrestrial  plants  of  the  higher 
division  of  the  dicotyledons  that  creep  downwards  from  the 
land  to  meet  the  vegetation  of  the  sea.  The  salt-worts,  the 
glass-worts,  the  arenaria,  the  thrift,  and  the  scurvy-grass,  are 
all  dicotyledonous  plants.  Nature  draws  a  deeply-marked 
line  of  division  where  the  requirements  of  the  transmutative 
hypothesis  would  demand  the  nicely  graduated  softness  of  a 


268  BEARING 

shade i  one;  and,  addressing  the  strongly  marked  floras  on 
either  hand,  even  more  sternly  than  the  waves  themselves, 
demands  that  to  a  certain  definite  bourne  should  they  come, 
and  no  farther. 

But  in  what  form,  it  may  be  asked,  or  with  what  limita- 
tions, ought  the  Christian  controversialist  to  avail  himself,  in 
this  question,  of  the  experience  argument  ?  Much  ought  to 
depend,  I  reply,  on  the  position  taken  up  by  the  opposite 
side.  We  find  no  direct  reference  made  by  the  author  of 
the  "Vestiges  "to  the  anti-miracle  argument,  first  broached 
by  Hume,  in  a  purely  metaphysical  shape,  in  his  well-known 
"  Inquiry,"  and  afterwards  thrown  into  the  algebraic  form  by 
La  Place,  in  his  £s5ai  pliilosophique  sur  les  ProhaMlit.es.  But 
we  do  not  detect  its  influences  operative  throughout  the  entire 
work.  It  is  because  of  some  felt  impracticability  on  the  part 
of  its  author,  of  attaining  to  the  prevailing  belief  in  the  miracle 
of  creation,  that  he  has  recourse,  instead,  to  the  so-called  law 
of  development.  The  law  and  the  miracle  are  the  alternatives 
placed  before  him  ;  and,  rejecting  the  miracle,  he  closes  with 
the  law.  Now,  in  such  circumstances,  he  can  have  no  more 
cause  of  complaint,  if,  presenting  him  with  the  experience 
argument  of  Hume  and  La  Place,  we  demand  that  he  square 
the  evidence  regarding  the  existence  of  his  law  strictly  ac- 
cording to  its  requirements,  than  the  soldier  of  an  army  that 
charged  its  field-pieces  with  rusty  nails  would  have  cause  of 
complaint  if  he  found  himself  wounded  by  a  missile  of  a 
similar  kind,  sent  against  him  by  the  artillery  of  the  enemy. 
You  cannot,  it  might  be  fairly  said,  in  addressing  him,  ac- 
quiesce in  the  miracle  here,  because,  as  a  violation  of  the  laws 
of  nature,  there  are  certain  objections,  founded  on  invariable 
experience,  which  bear  direct  against  your  belief  in  it.  Well, 
nere  are  the  obje  :tions,  in  the  strongest  form  in  which  they 


OF    THE    EXPERIENCE    ARGUMENT.  JJ69 

nave  yet  been  stated  ;  and  here  is  your  hypothesis  respecting 
the  development  of  marine  algae  into  terrestrial  plants.  We 
hold  that  against  that  h  pothesis  the  objections  bear  at  least 
as  directly  as  against  any  miracle  whatever,  —  nay,  that  not 
only  is  it  contrary  to  an  invariable  experience,  but  opposed 
also  to  all  testimony.  We  regard  it  as  a  mere  idle  dream. 
Mail! at  dreamed  it,  —  and  Lamarck  dreamed  it,  —  and  Oken 
dreamed  it ;  but  none  of  them  did  more  than  merely  dreara 
it :  its  existence  rests  on  exactly  the  same  basis  of  evidence 
as  that  of  Whang  the  miller's  "  monstrous  pot  of  gold  and 
diamonds,"  of  which  he  dreamed  three  nights  in  succession, 
but  which  he  never  succeeded  in  finding.  If  we  are  in  error 
in  our  estimate,  here  is  the  argument,  and  here  the  hypothesis  ; 
give  us,  in  support  of  the  hypothesis,  the  amount  of  evidence, 
founded  on  a  solid  experience,  which  the  argument  demands. 
But  to  leave  the  experience  argument  in  exactly  the  state 
in  which  it  was  left  by  Hume  and  La  Place,  would  be  doing 
no  real  justice  to  our  subject.  It  is  in  that  state  quite  suffi- 
cient to  establish  the  fact,  that  there  can  be  no  real  escape 
from  belief  in  acts  of  creation  never  witnessed  by  man,  to 
•processes  of  development  never  witnessed  by  man  ;  seeing 
that  a  presumed  law  beyond  the  cognizance  of  experience 
must  be  as  certainly  rejected,  on  the  principle  of  the  argu- 
ment, as  a  presumed  miracle  beyond  that  cognizance.  It 
places  the  presumed  law  and  the  presumed  miracle  on  exactly 
the  same  level.  But  there  is  a  palpable  flaw  in  the  anti-mira- 
cle argument.  It  does  not  prove  that  miracles  may  not  have 
taken  place,  but  that  miracles,  whether  they  have  taken  place 
or  no,  are  not  to  be  credited,  and  this  simply  because  they  are 
miracles,  i.  e.  violations  of  the  established  laws  of  nature. 
And  if  it  be  possible  for  events  to  take  place  which  man,  on 
certain  principles,  is  imperatively  required  not  to  credit,  these 
23* 


270  BEABING 

principles  must  of  course  serve  merely  to  establish  a  discrep- 
ancy between  the  actual  state,  of  things,  and  what  is  to  be 
believed  regarding  it.  And  thus,  instead  of  serving  purposes 
of  truth,  they  are  made  to  subserve  purposes  of  error ;  for 
the  existence  of  truth  in  the  mind  is  neither  more  nor  less 
than  the  existence  of  certain  conceptions  and  beliefs,  ade- 
quately representative  of  what  actually  is,  or  what  really  has 
taken  place. 

I  cannot  better  illustrate  this  direct  tendency  of  the  anti- 
miracle  argument  to  destroy  truth  in  the  mind,  by  bringing 
the  mental  beliefs  into  a  state  of  nonconformity  with  the  pos- 
sible and  actual,  than  by  a  quotation  from  La  Place  himself: 
"  We  would  not,"  he  says,  "  give  credit  to  a  man  who  would 
affirm  that  he  saw  a  hundred  dice  thrown  into  the  air,  and  that 
they  all  fell  on  the  same  faces.  If  we  had  ourselves  been 
spectators  of  such  an  event,  we  would  not  believe  our  own 
eyes  till  we  had  scrupulously  examined  all  the  circumstances, 
and  assured  ourselves  that  there  was  no  trick  or  deception. 
After  such  an  examination,  we  would  not  hesitate  to  admit 
it,  notwithstanding  its  great  improbability ;  and  no  one 
would  have  recourse  to  an  inversion  of  the  laws  of  vision 
in  order  to  account  for  it."  Now,  here  is  the  principle  broad- 
ly laid  down,  that  it  is  impossible  to  communicate  by  the 
evidence  of  testimony,  belief  in  an  event  which  might 
happen,  and  which,  if  it  happened,  ought  on  certain  condi- 
tions to  be  credited.  No  one  knew  better  than  La  Place 
himself,  that  the  possibility  of  the  event  which  he  instSnced 
could  be  represented  with  the  utmost  exactitude  by  figures. 
The  probability,  in  throwing  a  single  die,  that  the  ace  will 
be  presented  on  its  upper  face,  is  as  one  in  six,  —  six  being 
the  entire  number  of  sides  which  the  cube  can  possibly  pre- 
sent, and  the  side  with  tl  e  ace   being  one  of  these  ;  —  the 


CF  THE  EXPERIENCE  ARGUMENT.  271 

pro1>ability  that  in  throwing  a  pair  of  dice  the  aces  of  both 
will  be  at  once  presented  on  their  upper  faces,  is  as  one  in 
thirly-six,  as  against  the  one  sixth  chance  of  the  ace  being 
presented  by  the  one,  tiiere  are  also  six  chances  that  the  ace 
of  the  other  should  not  concur  with  it;  —  and  in  throwing 
three  dice,  the  probability  that  their  three  aces  should  be  at 
once  presented  is,  of  course,  on  the  same  principle,  as  one  in 
six  times  thirty-six,  or,  in  other  words,  as  one  in  two  hundred 
and  sixteen.  And  thus,  in  ascertaining  the  exact  degree  of 
probability  of  the  hundred  aces  at  once  turning  up,  we  have 
to  go  on  multiplying  by  six,  for  each  die  we  add  to  the  num- 
ber, the  product  of  the  immediately  previous  calculation. 
Unquestionab!y,'fhe  number  of  chances  against,  thus  balanced 
with  the  single  chanceybr,  would  be  very  great ;  but  its  exist- 
ence as  a  definite  number  would  establish,  with  all  the  force  of 
arithmetical  demonstration,  the  possibility  of  the  event;  and 
if  an  eternity  were  to  be  devoted  to  the  throwing  into  the  air 
of  the  hundred  dice,  it  would  occur  an  infinite  number  of  times. 
And  yet  the  principle  of  Hume  and  La  Place  forms,  when 
adopted,  an  impassable  gulf  between  this  possibility  and  hu- 
man belief.  The  possibility  might  be  embodied,  as  we  see,  in 
an  actual  occurrence,  —  an  occurrence  witnessed  by  hun- 
dreds ;  and  yet  the  anti-miracle  argument,  as  illustrated  by 
La  Place,  would  cut  off  all  communication  regarding  it  be- 
tween these  hundreds  of  witnesses,  however  unexceptionable 
their  character  as  such,  and  the  rest  of  mankind.  The  prin- 
ciple, instead  of  giving  us  a  right  rule  through  which  the 
beliefs  in  the  mind  are  to  be  rendered  correspondent  with  the 
reality  of  things,  goes  merely  to  establish  a  certain  imperfec- 
tion of  transmission  from  one  mind  to  another,  in  consequence 
of  which,  realties  in  fact,  if  very  extraordinary  ones,  could 
not  possibly  be  receivec  as  objects  of  belief,  nor  the  mental 


272  BEAKINQ 

appreciation  of  things  be  rendered  adequately  concurrent  with 
the  state  in  which  the  ibings  really  existed. 

Nor  is  the  case  different  when,  for  a  possibility  which  the 
arithmetician  can  represent  by  figures,  we  substitute  the 
miracle  proper.  Neither  Hume  nor  La  Place  ever  attempted 
to  show  that  miracles  could  not  take  place ;  they  merely  di- 
rected their  argument  against  a  belief  in  them.  The  wildest 
sceptic  must  admit,  if  in  any  degree  a  reasonable  man,  that 
there  may  exist  a  God,  and  that  that  God  may  have  given  laws 
to  nature.  No  demonstratio7i  of  the  non-existence  of  a  Great 
Fii-st  Cause  has  been  ever  yet  attempted,  nor,  until  the  knowl- 
edge of  some  sceptic  extends  over  all  space,  ever  can  be 
rationally  attempted.  Merely  to  doubt  the  fact  of  God's  ex- 
istence, and  to  give  reasons  for  the  doubt,  must  till  then  form 
the  highest  achievements  of  scepticism.  And  the  God  who 
may  thus  exist,  and  who  may  have  given  laws  to  nature,  may 
also  have  revealed  himself  to  man,  and,  in  order  to  secure  man's 
reasonable  belief  in  the  reality  of  the  revelation,  may  have 
temporarily  suspended  in  its  operation  some  great  natural 
law,  and  have  thus  shown  himself  to  be  its  Author  and 
Master.  Such  seems  to  be  the  philosophy  of  miracles;  which 
are  thus  evidently  not  only  not  impossibilities,  but  even  not 
improbabilities.  Even  were  we  to  permit  the  sceptic  himself 
to  fix  the  numbers  representative  of  those  several  mays  in 
the  case,  which  I  have  just  repeated,  the  chances  against  them, 
BO  to  speak,  would  be  less  by  many  thousand  times  than  the 
chances  against  the  hundred  dice  of  La  Place's  illustration 
all  turning  up  aces.  The  existence  of  a  Great  First  Cause 
is  at  least  as  probajle  —  the  sceptic  himself  being  judge 
in  the  matter  —  as  the  now-existence  of  a  Great  First 
Cause ;  and  so  the  probability  in  this  first  stage  of  the  ar- 
gument, instead  of  being,  as  in  the  case  of  the  single   die, 


OF    THE   EXPERIENCE   AKGITMENT,  273 

only  one  to  six,  is  as  one  to  Dne.  Again,  —  in  accordance 
with  an  sxpectation  so  general  among  the  human  family  as  to 
form  one  of  the  great  instincts  of  our  nature,  —  an  instinct 
to  which  every  form  of  religion,  true  or  false,  bears  evidence, 

—  it  is  in  no  degree  less  probable  that  this  God  should  have 
revealed  himself  to  man,  than  that  he  should  not  have  re- 
vealed himself  to  man ;  and  here  the  chances  are  again  as 
one  to  one,  —  not,  as  in  the  second  stage  of  the  calculation 
on  the  dice,  as  one  to  thirty-six.  Nor,  in  the  third  and  last 
stage,  is  it  less  probable  that  God,  in  revealing  himself  to  man, 
should  have  given  miraculous  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the 
revelation,  so  that  man  "  might  believe  in  Him  for  His  work's 
sake,"  than  that  He  should  not  have  done  so ;  and  here  yet 
again  the  chances  are  as  one  to  one,  —  not  as  one  to  two  hun- 
dred and  sixteen.  No  rational  sceptic  could  fix  the  chances 
lower  ;  nay,  no  rational  sceptic,  so  far  as  the  existence  of  a 
Great  First  Cause  is  concerned,  would  be  inclined  to  fix 
them  so  low  :  and  yet  it  is  in  order  to  annihilate  all  belief  in 
a  possibility  against  which  the  chances  are  so  few  as  to  be 
represented  —  scepticism  itself  being  the  actuary  in  the  case 

—  by  three  units,  that  Hume  and  La  Place  have  framed  their 
argument.  Miracles  wta?/ have  taken  place,  —  the  probabili- 
ties against  them,  stated  in  their  most  extreme  and  exag- 
gerated form,  are  by  no  means  many  or  strong  ;  but  we  are 
nevertheless  not  to  believe  that  they  did  take  place,  simply 
because  miracles  they  were.  Now,  the  effect  of  the  establish 
ment  of  a  principle  such  as  this  would  be  simply,  I  repeat,  the 
destruction  of  the  ability  jf  transmitting  certain  beliefs,  how- 
ever w=»ll  founded  originally,  from  one  set  or  generation  of 
men  to  another.  These  beliefs  the  first  set  or  generation 
might,  on  La  Place's  own  principles,  be  compelled  to  enter- 
tain.    The  evidence  of  the  senses,  however  wonderful  the 


274 


BEARING 


event  which  they  certified,  is  not,  he  himself  tells  us,  to  be 
resisted.  But  the  conviction  which,  on  one  set  of  principles, 
these  men  were  on  no  account  to  resist,  the  men  that  came 
immediately  after  them  were,  on  quite  another  set  of  prin- 
ciples, on  no  account  to  entertain.  And  thus  the  anti-miracle 
argument,  instead  of  leadirg,  as  all  true  philosophy  ought,  to 
an  exact  correspondence  between  the  realities  of  things  and 
the  convictions  received  by  the  mind  regarding  them,  palpably 
forms  a  bar  to  the  reception  of  beliefs,  adequate  to  the  possi; 
bilities  of  actual  occurrence  or  event,  and  so  constitutes  an 
imperfection  or  flaw  in  the  mental  economy,  instead  of  work- 
ing an  improvement.  And,  in  accordance  with  this  view, 
we  find  that  in  the  economy  of  minds  of  the  very  highest 
order  this  imperfection  or  flaw  has  had  no  place.  Locke 
studied  and  wrote  upon  the  subject  of  miracles  proper,  and 
exhibited  in  his  "  Discourse "  all  the  profundity  of  his  ex- 
traordinary mind  ;  and  yet  Locke  was  a  believer.  Newton 
studied  and  wrote  on  the  subject  of  miracles  of  another  kind, 
—  those  of  prophecy ;  and  he  also,  as  shown  by  his  "  Obser- 
vations on  the  Prophecies  of  Daniel  and  the  Apocalypse," 
was  a  believer.  Butler  studied  and  wrote  on  the  subject  of 
miracles,  chiefly  in  connection  with  "  Miraculous  Eevela- 
tica ;  "  and  he  also  was  a  believer.  Chalmers  studied  and 
wrote  on  the  subject  of  miracles  in  his  "  Evidences,"  after 
Hume,  La  Place,  and  Playfair  had  all  promulgated  their  pe- 
culiar views  regarding  it ;  and  he  also  was  a  believer.  And 
in  none  of  the  truly  distinguished  men  of  the  prcbent  day, 
though  all  intimately  acquainted  with  the  anti-miracle  argu- 
ment, is  this  flaw  or  imperfection  found  to  exist :  on  the  con- 
trary, they  all  hold,  as  becomes  the  philosophic  intellect  and 
character,  that  whatever  is  possible  may  occur,  and  that  what- 
ever occurs  ought,  on  the  proper  evidence,  to  be  believed. 


OF    THE   EXPERIENCE   ARGUMENT.  275 

But  though  the  experience  argument  is  of  no  real  force, 
and,  as  shown  by  the  beliefs  of  the  higher  order  of  minds,  of 
no  real  eflect,  when  brought  to  bear  against  miracles  sup- 
ported by  the  proper  testimony,  it  is  of  great  force  and  effect 
when  brought  to  bear,  not  against  miracles,  but  against  some 
presumed  lata.  It  is  experience,  and  experience  only,  that 
determines  what  is  or  is  not  law  ,  and  it  is  law,  and  law  only, 
that  constitutes  the  subject-matter  of  ordinary  experience, 
Experience,  in  determining  what  is  really  miracle,  does  so 
simply  through  its  positive  knowledge  of  law :  by  knowing 
law,  it  knows  also  what  would  be  a  violation  of  it.  And 
so  miracle  cannot  possibly  form  the  subject-matter  of  ex- 
perience in  the  sense  of  Hume.  For  did  miracle  consti- 
tute the  subject-matter  of  experience,  the  law  of  which  the 
miracle  was  a  violation  could  not :  most  emphatically,  in  this 
case,  were  there  "  no  law  "  there  could  be  "  no  transgress- 
ion;" and  so  experience  would  be  unable  to  recognize,  not 
only  the  existence  of  the  law  transgressed,  but  also  of  the 
miracle,  in  its  character  as  such,  which  was  a  transgression 
of  the  law.  We  determine  from  experience  that  there 
exists  a  certain  fixed  law,  known  among  men  as  the  law 
of  gravitation  ;  and  that,  in  consequence  of  this  law,  if  a 
human  creature  attempt  standing  upon  the  sea,  he  will  sink 
into  it ;  or  if  he  attempt  rising  from  the  earth  into  the  heavens, 
he  will  remain  fixed  to  the  spot  on  which  the  attempt  is 
made.  Such,  in  these  cases,  would  be  the  direct  effects  of 
this  gravitation  law ;  and  any  presumed  law  antagonistic  in 
its  character  could  not  be  other  than  a  law  contrary  to  that 
invariable  experience  by  which  the  existence  of  the  real  law 
in  the  case  is  determined.  But  certain  it  is  —  for  the  evi- 
dence regarding  the  facts  cannot  be  resisted,  and  by  the 
greater  minds  has  not  been  resisted  —  that  a  man  did  once 


276  BEARING    OF    THE   EXPERIENCE   ARGUMENT. 

walk  upon  the  sea  without  sinking  into  it,  and  did  once 
ascend  from  the  earth  into  the  sky  ;  and  these  miracles 
ought  not  to  be  tested  —  and  by  earnest  inquirers  after  truth 
really  never  have  been  tested — by  any  experience  of  the 
uniformity  of  the  law  of  which  they  were  professed  trans- 
gressions, seeing  it  was  essentially  and  obviously  necessary 
that,  in  order  to  serve  the  great  moral  purpose  which  God 
intended  by  them,  the  law  which  they  violated  should  have 
been  a  uniform  law,  and  that  they  should  have  been  palpable 
violations  of  it.  But  while  the  experience  argument  is  thus 
of  no  value  when  directed  against  well-attested  miracle,  it  is, 
as  I  have  said,  all-potent  when  directed  against  presumed 
laiD.  Of  law  we  know  nothing,  I  repeat,  except  what  expe- 
rience tells  us.  A  miracle  contrary  to  experience  in  the 
sense  of  Hume  is  simply  a  miracle  ;  a  presumed  law  contrary 
to  experience  is  no  law  at  all.  For  it  is  from  experience, 
and  experience  only,  that  we  know  any  thing  of  natural 
law.  The  argument  of  Hume  and  La  Place  is  perfect,  as 
such,  when  directed  against  the  development  visions  of  the 
Lamarckian. 


THE   DEVELOPMENT   HYPOTHESIS   IN   EMBEYO.  277 


THE   DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS  IN   ITS    EilBRYONIC 
STATE. 

OLDER   THAN   ITS   ALLEGED   FOUNDATIONS. 


When  Maillet  first  promulgated  his  hypothesis,  many  of  the 
departments  of  natural  history  existed  as  mere  regions  of 
fable  and  romance ;  and,  in  addressing  himself  to  the  Musca- 
dins  of  Paris,  in  a  popular  work  as  wild  and  amusing  as  a 
fairy  tale,  he  could  safely  take  the  liberty,  and  he  did  take  it 
very  freely,  of  exaggerating  the  marvellous,  and  adding  fresh 
fictions  to  the  untrue.  And  in  preparing  them  for  his  theory 
of  the  metamorphoses  of  a  marine  into  a  terrestrial  vegeta- 
tion, he  set  himself,  in  accordance  with  his  general  character, 
to  show  that  really  the  transmutation  did  not  amount  to 
much.  "  I  know  you  have  resided  a  long  time,"  his  Indian 
Philosopher  is  made  to  say,  "  at  Marseilles.  Now,  you  can 
bear  me  witness,  that  the  fishermen  there  daily  find  in  their 
nets,  and  among  their  fish,  plants  of  a  hundred  kinds,  with 
their  fruits  still  upon  them  ;  and  though  these  fruits  are  not 
so  large  and  so  well  nourished  as  those  of  our  earth,  yet 
the  species  of  these  plants  is  in  no  other  respect  dubious. 
They  there  find  clusters  of  white  and  black  grapes,  peach- 
trees,  pear-trees,  prune-trees,  apple-trees,  and  all  sorts  of 
^lowers.  When  in  that  city,  I  saw,  in  the  cabinet  of  a  curious 
24 


279  THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS 

gentleman,  a  prodigious  number  of  those  sea-pit)ductions  of 
different  qualities,  especially  of  rose-trees,  which  had  their 
roses  very  red  when  they  came  out  of  the  sea.  I  was  there 
presented  with  a  cluster  of  black  sea-grapes.  It  was  at  the 
time  of  the  vintage,  and  there  were  two  grapes  perfectly 
ripe." 

Now,  all  this,  and  much  more  of  the  same  nature,  ad- 
dressed to  the  Parisians  of  the  reign  of  Louis  the  Fifteenth, 
passed,  I  doubt  not,  wonderfully  well ;  but  it  will  not  do  now, 
when  almost  every  young  girl,  whether  in  town  or  country,  is 
a  botanist,  and  works  on  the  algae  have  become  popular.  Since 
Maillet  wrote,  Hume  promulgated  his  argument  on  Miracles, 
and  La  Place  his  doctrine  of  Probabilities.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  these  have  exerted  a  wholesome  influence  on  the 
laws  of  evidence ;  and  by  these  laws,  as  restricted  and 
amended,  —  laws  to  which,  both  in  science  and  religion,  we 
ourselves  conform,  —  we  insist  on  trying  the  Lamarckian 
hypothesis,  and  in  condemning  it,  —  should  it  be  found  to  have 
neither  standing  in  experience  nor  support  from  testimony,  — 
as  a  mere  feverish  dream,  incoherent  in  its  parts  and  base- 
less in  its  fabric.  Give,  we  ask,  but  one  well-attested  in- 
stance of  transmutation  from  the  algse  to  even  the  lower 
forms  of  terrestrial  vegetation  common  on  our  sea-coasts, 
and  we  will  keep  the  question  open,  in  expectation  of  more. 
It  will  not  do  to  tell  us  —  as  Cuvier  was  told,  when  he  ap- 
pealed to  the  fact,  determined  by  the  mummy  birds  and  rep- 
tiles of  Egypt,  of  the  fixity  of  species  in  all,  even  the  slightest 
particulars,  for  at  least  three  thousand  years —  that  immensely 
extended  periods  of  time  are  necessary  to  effect  specific 
changes,  and  that  human  observation  has  not  beensp'ead  over 
a  period  sufficiently  ample  to  furnish  the  required  data  re- 
garding them.     The  apology  is  simply  a  confession  that,  in 


IN    ITS    EMBRYONIC    STATE.  279 

these  ages  of  the  severe  inductive  philosophy,  you  have  been 
dreaming  your  dream,  cut  off,  as  if  by  the  state  of  sleep,  from 
all  the  tangibilities  of  the  real  waking-day  world,  and  that  you 
have  not  a  vestige  of  testimony  with  which  to  support  your 
ingenious  vagaries. 

But  on  another  account  do  we  refuse  to  sustain  the  excuse. 
It  is  not  true  that  human  observation  has  not  been  spread 
over  a  period  sufficiently  extended  to  furnish  the  necessary 
data  for  testing  the  development  hypothesis.  In  one  special 
walk,  —  that  which  bears  on  the  supposed  transmutation 
of  algce  into  terrestrial  plants,  —  human  observation  lias 
been  spread  over  what  is  strictly  analogous  to  millions  of 
years.  For  extent  of  space  in  this  matter  is  exactly  corre- 
spondent with  duration  of  time.  No  man,  in  this  late  period 
of  the  world's  history,  attains  to  the  age  of  five  hundred 
years  ;  and  as  some  of  our  larger  English  oaks  have  been 
known  to  increase  in  bulk  of  trunk  and  extent  of  bough  for 
five  centuries  together,  no  man  can  possibly  have  seen  the 
same  huge  oak  pass,  according  to  Cowper,  through  its  va- 
rious stages  of  "  treeship,"  — 

"  First  a  seedling  hid  in  grass ; 
Then  t-wig ;  then  sapling ;  and,  as  century  rolls 
Slow  after  century,  a  giant  bulk, 
Of  girth  enormous,  with  moss-cushioned  root 
Upheaved  above  the  soil,  and  sides  embossed 
"With  prominent  wens  globose." 

But  though  no  man  lives  throughout  five  hundred  years  of 
time,  he  can  trace,  by  passing  in  some  of  the  English  forests 
through  five  hundred  yards  of  space,  the  history  of  the  oak 
in  all  its  stages  of  growth,  as  correctly  as  if  he  did  live 
throughout  the  five  hundred  years.  Oaks,  in  the  space  of  a 
few  hundred  yards,  may  be  seen  in  every  stage  of  growth, 
from  the  newly  burst  acorn,  that  presents  to  the  light  its 


280  THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS 

two  fleshy  lobes,  with  the  first  tender  rudiments  of  a  leaflet 
between,  up  to  the  giant  of  the'forest,  in  the  hollow  of  whose 
trunk  the  red  deer  may  shelter,  and  find  ample  room  for  the 
broad  spread  of  his  antlers.  The  fact  of  the  development  of 
the  oak,  from  the  minute  two-lobed  seedling  of  a  week's 
growth  up  to  the  gigantic  tree  of  five  centuries,  is  as  capable 
of  being  demonstrated  by  observation  spread  over  five  hun- 
dred yards  of  space,  as  by  observation  spread  over  five  hun- 
dred years  of  time.  And  be  it  remembered,  that  the  sea- 
coasts  of  the  world  are  several  hundred  thousand  miles  in  ex- 
tent. Europe  is  by  far  the  smallest  of  the  earth's  four  large 
divisions,  and  it  is  bounded,  in  proportion  to  its  size,  by  a 
greater  extent  of  land  than  any  of  the  others.  And  yet  the 
sea-coasts  of  Europe  alone,  including  those  of  its  islands, 
exceed  twenty-five  thousjand  miles.  We  have  results  before 
us,  in  this  extent  of  space,  identical  with  those  of  many  hun- 
dred thousand  years  of  time;  and  if  terrestrial  plants  were 
as  certainly  developments  of  the  low  plants  of  the  sea  as  the 
huge  oak  is  a  development  of  the  immature  seedling,  just 
sprung  from  the  acorn,' so  vast  a  stretch  of  sea-coast  could  not 
fail  to  present  us  with  the  intermediate  vegetation  in  all  its 
stages.  But  the  sea-coasts  fail  to  exhibit  even  a  vestige  of 
the  intermediate  vegetation.  Experience  spread  over  an  ex- 
tent of  space  analogous  to  millions  of  years  of  time,  does 
not  furnish,  in  this  department,  a  single  fact  corroborative 
of  the  development  theory,  but,  on  the  contrary,  many  hun- 
dreds of  facts  that  bear  directly  against  it. 

The  au'.hor  of  the  "  Vestiges  "  is  evidently  a  practised  and 
asteful  writer,  and  his  work  abounds  in  ingenious  combi- 
nations of  thought;  but  those  powers  of  abstract  reflection, 
on  whose  vigorous  oxercise  the  origination  of  argument  de- 
nerads,  nature  a3ems   to  have  denied  him.     There  are  two 


IN    ITS    EMBRYONIC    STATE.  281 

things  in  especial  which  his  work  wants,  —  original  observa- 
tion and  abstract  thought^  —  the  power  of  seeing  for  himself 
and  of  reasoning  for  himself;  and  what  we  find  instead  is 
simply  a  vivid  appreciation  of  the  images  of  things,  as  these 
images  exist  in  other  minds,  and  a  vigorous  perception  of  the 
various  shades  of  resemblance  which  obtain  among  them. 
There  is  a  large  amount  of  analogical  power  exhibited  ;  but 
that  basis  of  truth  which  correct  observation  can  alone  furnish, 
and  that  ability  of  nicely  distinguishing  differences  by  which 
the  faculty  of  discerning  similarity  must  be  forever  regu- 
lated and  governed,  are  wanting,  in  what,  in  a  mind  of  fine 
general  texture  and  quality,  must  be  regarded  as  an  extraor- 
dinary degree.  And  hence  an  ingenious  but  very  unsolid 
work,  —  full  of  images  transferred,  not  from  the  scientific 
field,  but  from  the  field  of  scientific  mind,  and  charged  with 
glittering  but  vague  resemblances,  stamped  in  the  mint  of 
fancy  ;  which,  were  they  to  be  used  as  mere  counters  in  some 
light  literary  game  of  story-telling  or  character-sketching, 
would  be  in  no  respect  out  of  place,  but  which,  when  passed 
current  as  the  proper  coin  of  philosophic  argument,  are  really 
frauds  on  the  popular  understanding.  There  are,  however, 
not  a  few  instances  in  the  "  Vestiges"  and  its  "  Sequel,"  in 
which  that  defect  of  reflective  power  to  which  I  refer  rather 
enhances  than  diminishes  the  difficulty  of  reply,  by  presenting 
to  the  controversialist  mere  intangible  clouds  with  which  to 
grapple;  that  yet,  through  the  existence  of  a  cerain  super- 
stition in  the  popular  mmd,  as  predisposed  to  accept  as  true 
whatever  takes  the  form  of  science,  as  its  predecessor  the  old 
superstition  was  inclined  a  century  ago  to  reject  science  itself, 
are  at  least  suited  to  blind  and  bewilder.  Of  this  kind  of 
diflaculty,  the  following  passage,  in  which  the  author  of  the 
work  cashiers  the  Creator  as  such,  and  substitutes,  instead,  a 
24* 


282  THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS 

mere  animal-manufacturing  piece  of  clock-work,  which  bears 
the  name  of  natural  law,*  furnishes  us  with  a  remarkable  in« 
stance. 

"  Admitting,"  he  remarks,  "  that  we  see  not  now  any  such 

*  "SVe  are  supplied  Avith  a  curious  example  of  that  ever-return- 
ing cycle  of  sijcculation  in  which  the  human  mind  operates,  by 
not  only  the  introduction  of  the  principle  of  Epicurus  into  the 
'•  Vestiges,"  but  also  by  the  unconscious  employment  of  even 
his  very  arguments,  slightly  modified  by  the  floating  semi- scientific 
notions  of  the  time.  The  following  passages,  taken,  the  one  from 
the  modem  work,  the  other  from  Fenslon's  life  of  the  old  Greek 
philosopher,  are  not  unworthy  of  being  studied,  as  curiously  illus- 
trative of  the  cycle  of  thought.  Epicurus,  I  must,  however,  first 
remind  the  reader,  in  the  words  of  his  biographer,  "supposed 
that  men,  and  all  other  animals,  were  originally  produced  by  the 
ground.  According  to  him,  the  prin  itive  earth  was  fat  and  nitrous  ; 
and  the  sun,  gradually  warming  it,  soon  covered  it  with  herbage 
and  shrubs :  there  also  began  to  arise  on  the  surface  of  the  ground 
a  great  number  of  small  tumors  like  mushrooms,  which  having 
in  a  certain  time  come  to  maturity,  the  skin  burst,  and  there  came 
forth  little  animals,  which,  gradually  retiring  from  the  place  where 
they  were  produced,  began  to  respire."  And  there  can  be  little 
doubt,  that  had  the  microscope  been  a  discovery  of  early  Greece, 
the  passage  here  would  have  told  us,  not  of  mushroom-like  tumors, 
but  of  monads.  Save  that  the  element  of  microscopic  fact  is  awant- 
ing  in  the  one  and  present  in  the  other,  the  following  are  strictly 
parallel  lines  of  argument :  — 

"To  the  natural  objection  that  "In  the  first  place,  there  is  no 
the  earth  does  not  now  produce  reason  to  suppose  that,  though 
men,  lions,  and  dogs,  Epicurus  life  had  been  imparted  by  natu- 
replies  that  the  fecundity  of  the  ral  means,  after  the  first  cool- 
earth  is  now  exhausted.  In  ad-  ing  of  the  surface  to  a  suitable 
vanced  age  a  woman  ceases  to  temperament,  it  would  continue 
bear  children ;  a  piece  of  land  thereafter  to  be  capable  of  being 
never  before  cultivated  produces  imparted  in  like  manner.  The 
much  more  during  the  few  first  great  work  of  the  peopling  of 
years  than  it  does  afterwards ;  this  globe  -v^-ith  living  species  is 
and  when  a  forest  is  once  cut  mainly  a  fact  accompbshed:  the 
iown,   the   soil   never    produces    highest  known  species   came   as 


IN    ITS    EMBRYONIC    STATE. 


283 


fact  as  the  production  of  new  species,  we  at  least  know,  that 
while  such  facts  were  occurring  upon  earth,  there  were  associ- 
ated phenomena  in  progi'ess  of  a  character  perfectly  ordinary. 
For  example,  when  the  earth  received  its  first  fishes,  sandstone 
and  limestone  were  forming  in  the  manner  exemplified  a  few 
years  ago  in  the  ingenious  experiments  of  Sir  James  Hall ;  ba- 
saltic columns  rose  for  the  future  wonder  of  man,  according 
to  the  principle  which  Dr.  Gregory  Watt  showed  in  operation 
before  the  eyes  of  our  fathers ;  and  hollows  in  the  igneous 
rocks  were  filled  with  crystals,  precisely  as  they  could  now 


trees  equal  to  those  which  have 
been  rooted  up.  Those  which 
are  afterwards  planted  become 
dwarfish,  and  are  perpetually 
degenerating.  We  are,  however, 
he  argues,  by  no  means  certain 
but  there  may  be  at  present  rab- 
bits, hares,  foxes,  bears,  and 
other  animals,  produced  by  the 
earth  in  their  perfect  state.  The 
reason  why  we  are  backward  in 
admitting  it  is,  that  it  happens 
in  retired  places,  and  never  falls 
under  our  view  ;  and,  never  see- 
ing rats  but  such  as  have  been 
produced  by  other  rats,  we  adopt 
the  opinion  that  the  earth  never 
produced  any."  {F6ii6lon's  Lives 
cftki  AnAetU  Pkthsophers.) 


a  crowning  effort  thousands  of 
years  ago.  The  work  being  thus 
to  all  appearance  finished,  we 
are  not  necessarily  to  expect  that 
the  origination  of  life  and  of 
species  should  be  conspicuously 
exemplified  in  the  present  day. 
We  are  rather  to  expect  that  the 
vital  phenomena  presented  to 
our  eyes  should  mainly,  if  not 
entirely,  be  limited  to  a  regular 
and  unvarying  succession  of 
races  by  the  ordinary  means  of 
generation.  This,  however,  i<? 
no  more  an  argument  against  a 
time  when  phenomena  of  tht 
first  kind  prevailed,  than  it 
would  be  a  proof  against  the 
fact  of  a  mature  man  having 
once  been  a  growing  youth,  that 
he  is  now  seen  growing  no 
longer.  •  *  *  Secondly,  it 
is  far  from  being  certain  that 
the  primitive  imparting  of  life 
and  form  to  inorganic  elements 
is  not  a  fact  of  our  times.  (Fe»< 
tiges  of  Creatioti.') 


294  THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS 

be  by  virtue  of  electric  action,  as  shown  within  the  last  few 
years  by  Crosse  and  Becquerel.  The  seas  obeyed  the  im- 
pulse of  gentle  breezes,  and  rippled  their  sandy  bottoms,  as 
seas  of  the  present  day  are  doing  ;  the  trees  grew  as  now, 
by  favor  of  sun  and  wind,  thriving  in  good  seasons  and 
pining  in  bad :  this  while  the  animals  above  fishes  were  yet 
to  be  created.  The  movements  of  the  sea,  the  meteorologi- 
cal agencies,  the  disposition  which  we  see  in  the  generality 
of  plants  to  thrive  when  heat  and  moisture  were  most  abun- 
dant, were  kept  up  in  silent  serenity,  as  matters  of  simply 
natural  order,  throughout  the  whole  of  the  ages  which  saw 
reptiles  enter  in  their  various  forms  upon  the  sea  and  land. 
It  was  about  the  time  of  the  first  mammals  that  the  forest 
of  the  Dirt-Bed  was  sinking  in  natural  ruin  amidst  the  sea 
sludge,  as  forests  of  the  Plantagenets  have  been  doing  for 
several  centuries  upon  the  coast  of  England.  In  short  ill 
the  common  operations  of  the  physical  world  were  going  on  in 
their  usual  simplicity,  obeying  that  order  which  we  still  see 
governing  them ;  while  the  supposed  extraordinary  causes 
were  in  requisition  for  the  development  of  the  animal  and 
vegetable  kingdoms.  There  surely  hence  arises  a  strong  pre- 
sumption against  any  such  causes.  It  becomes  much  more 
likely  that  the  latter  phenomena  were  evolved  in  the  manner 
of  law  also,  and  that  we  only  dream  of  extraordinary  causes 
here,  as  men  once  dreamt  of  a  special  action  of  Deity  in 
every  change  of  wind  and  the  results  of  each  season,  merely 
because  they  did  not  know  the  laws  by  which  the  events  in 
question  were  evolved." 

How,  let  us  suppose,  would  David  Hume  —  the  greatest 
thinker  of  which  infidelity  can  boast  —  have  greeted  the 
auxiliary  who  could  have  brought  him  such  an  argument  as  a 
contribution  to  the  ca  ase  .''    "  Your  objection,  so  far  as  you  have 


IN   ITS   EMBRYONIC    STATE.  285 

Bated  it,"  the  philosopher  might  have  said,  "  amounts  simply 
to  this  :  —  Creation  by  direct  act  is  a  miracle;  whereas  all 
that  exists  is  propagated  and  maintained  by  natural  law.  Nat- 
ural laws  —  to  vary  the  illustration  —  were  in  full  operation  at 
the  period  when  the  Author  of  the  Christian  religion  was,  it 
is  said,  engaged  in  working  his  miracles.  When,  according  to 
our  opponents,  he  walked  upon  the  surface  of  the  sea,  Peter, 
through  the  operation  of  the  natural  law  of  gravitation,  was 
sinking  into  it ;  when  he  withered,  by  a  word,  the  barren 
fig-tree,  there  were  other  trees  on  the  Mount  thriving  in 
conformity  with  the  vegetative  laws,  under  the  influence  of 
sun  and  shower  ;  when  he  raised  the  dead  Lazarus,  there 
were  corpses  in  the  neighboring  tombs  passing,  through  the 
natural  putrefactive  fermentation,  into  a  state  of  utter  de- 
composition. In  fine,  at  the  time  when  he  was  engaged, 
as  Reid  and  Campbell  believe,  in  working  miracles  in  vio- 
lation of  law,  the  laws  of  which  these  were  a  violation 
actually  existed,  and  were  every  where  actively  operative  ; 
or,  to  employ  your  own  words,  when  the  New  Testa- 
ment miracles  were,  it  is  alleged,  in  the  act  of  bemg 
wrought,  '  all  the  common  operations  of  the  physical  world 
were  going  on  in  their  usual  simplicity,  obeying  that  order 
which  we  still  see  governing  them.'  Such  is  the  portion  of 
vour  statement  already  made ;  what  next .''  "  "  It  is  surely 
rery  unlikely,"  replies  the  auxiliary,  "  that  in  such  a  com- 
)lex  mass  of  phenomena  there  should  have  been  two  totally 
iistinct  modes  of  the  exercise  of  the  Divine  power,  —  the 
mode  by  miracle  and  the  mode  by  law."  "  Unlikely  !  "  re- 
joins the  philosopher  ;  "  on  what  grounds  ?  "  "  O,  just  un 
likely,''''  says  the  auxiliary  ;  —  "  unlikely  that  God  should  be  at 
once  operating  on  matter  through  the  agency  of  natural  laws, 
of  which  man  knows  much,  and  through  the  agency  of  miracu 


286  THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS 

lous  acts,  of  the  nature  of  which  man  knows  nothing.  But  I 
have  not  thought  out  the  subject  any  further  :  you  have,  in  the 
statement  already  made,  my  entire  argument.''''  "Ay,  I  see," 
the  author  of  the  "  Essay  on  Miracles  "  would  probably  have 
remarked  ;  "  you  deem  it  unlikely  that  Deity  should  not  only 
work  in  part,  as  he  has  always  done,  by  means  of  which  men, 
—  clever  fellows  like  you  and  me  —  think  they  know  a  great 
deal  but  that  he  should  also  work  in  part,  as  he  has  always 
done,  by  means  of  which  they  know  nothing  at  all.  Admirably 
reasoned  out !  You  are,  I  make  no  doubt,  a  sound,  zealous 
unbeliever  in  your  private  capacity,  and  your  argument  may 
have  great  weight  with  your  own  mind,  and  be,  in  conse- 
quence, worthy  of  encouragement  in  a  small  way;  but  allow 
me  to  suggest  that,  for  the  sake  Df  the  general  cause,  it 
should  be  kept  out  of  reach  of  the  enemy.  There  are  in  the 
Churches  Militant  on  both  sides  of  the  Tweed  shrewd  com- 
batants, who  have  nearly  as  much  wit  as  ourselves. '  I  think 
I  understand  the  reference  of  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  '* 
to  the  dream  "  of  a  special  action  of  Deity  in  every  change 
of  wind  and  the  results  of  each  season."  Taken  with  what 
immediately  goes  before,  it  means  something  considerably 
different  from  those  fancies  of  the  "  untutored  Indian,"  who, 
according  to  the  poet, 

"  Sees  God  in  clouds,  or  hears  him  in  the  wind." 
There  is  a  school  of  infidelity,  tolerably  well  known  in  the 
capital  of  Scotland  as  by  far  the  most  superficial  which  our 
country  has  yet  seen,  that  measures  mind  with  a  tape-line 
and  the  callipers,  and,  albeit  not  Christian,  laudably  exem- 
plifies, in  a  loudly  expressed  regard  for  science,  the  Christian 
grace  of  loving  its  enemy.  And  the  belief  in  a  special  Prov- 
idence, who  watches  over  and  orders  all  things,  and  without 
whose  permission  there  falleth  not  even  a  "  sparrow  to  the 


IN    ITS    EMBRYONIC    STATE.  287 

ground,"  the  apostles  of  this  school  set  wholly  asiie,  substi- 
tuting, instead,  a  belief  in  the  indiscriminating  operation 
of  natural  laws  ;  as  if,  with  the  broad  fact  before  them  that 
even  man  can  work  out  his  will  merely  by  knowing  and  di- 
recting these  laws,  the  God  by  whom  they  were  instituted 
should  lack  either  the  power  or  the  wisdom  to  make  them 
the  pliant  ministers  of  his.  It  is,  I  fear,  to  the  distinctive 
tenet  in  the  creed  of  this  hapless  school  that  the  author  of 
the  "  Vestiges "  refers.  Nor  is  it  in  the  least  surprising, 
that  a  writer  who  labors  through  two  carefully  written  vol- 
umes,* to  destroy  the  existing  belief  in  "  God's  works  of 
Creation,"  should  affect  to  hold  that  the  belief  in  his  "  works 
of  Providence  "  had  been  destroyed  already.  But  faith  in  a 
special  superintendence  of  Deity  is  not  yet  dead  :  nay,  more, 
He  who  created  the  human  mind  took  especial  care,  in  its  con- 
struction, that,  save  in  a  few  defective  specimens  of  the  race, 
the  belief  should  never  die. 

The  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  "  complains  of  the  illiberality 
with  which  he  has  been  treated.  "  It  has  appeared  to  vari- 
ous critics,"  we  find  him  saying,  "  that  very  sacred  princi- 
ples are  threatened  by  a  doctrine  of  universal  law.  A  natu- 
ral origin  of  life,  and  a  natural  basis  in  organization  for  the 
operations  of  the  human  mind,  speak  to  them  of  fatalism  and 
materialism.  And,  strange  to  say,  those  who  every  day  give 
views  of  physical  cosmogony  altogether  discrepant  n  appear- 
ance with  that  of  Moses,  apply  hard  names  to  my  book  for 
suggesting  an  organic  cosmogony  in  the  same  way,  liable  to 
inconsiderate  odium.  I  must  firmly  protest  against  this  mode 
of  meeting  speculations  regarding  nature.     The  object  of  my 


*  "  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of  Creation,"  and  "  Explanatiom, 
being  a  Seqtiel to  the  Vestiges" 


288  THE    DEVELOPBIENT    HYPOTHESIS 

book,  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  manner  in  which  it  a 
treated,  is  purely  scientific.  The  views  which  I  give  of  the 
history  of  organization  stand  exactly  on  the  same  ground 
upoa  which  the  geological  doctrines  stood  fifty  years  ago» 
1  am  merely  endeavoring  to  read  aright  another  chapter  of 
the  mystic  book  which  God  has  placed  under  the  attention 
of  his  creatures.  .  .  The  absence  of  all  liberality  in  my 
reviewers  is  striking,  and  especially  so  in  those  whose  geologi- 
cal doctrines  have  exposed  them  to  similar  misconstruction. 
If  the  men  newly  emerged  from  the  odium  which  was  thrown 
upon  Newton's  theory  of  the  planetary  motions  had  rushed 
forward  to  turn  that  odium  upon  the  patrons  of  the  dawning 
science  of  Geology,  they  would  have  been  prefiguring  the 
conduct  of  several  of  my  critics,  themselves  hardly  escaped 
from  the  rude  hands  of  the  narrow-minded,  yet  eager  to  join 
that  rabble  against  a  new  and  equally  unfriended  stranger,  as 
if  such  were  the  best  means  of  purchasing  impunity  for  them- 
selves. /  trust  that  a  little  time  will  enable  the  public  to  pen- 
etrate this  policy.'''' 

Now,  there  is  one  very  important  point  to  which  the  author 
of  this  complaint  does  not  seem  to  have  adverted.  The  as- 
tronomer founded  his  belief  in  the  mobility  of  the  earth  and 
the  immobility  of  the  sun,  not  on  a  mere  dream-like  hy- 
pothesis, founded  on  nothing,  but  on  a  wide  and  solid  base  of 
pure  induction.  Galileo -was  no  mere  dreamer;  —  he  was  a 
discoverer  of  great  truths,  and  a  profound  reasoner  regard- 
ing them  :  and  on  his  discoveries  and  his  reasonings,  com- 
pelled by  the  inexorable  laws  of  his  mental  constitution,  did 
he  build  up  certain  deductive  beliefs,  which  had  no  previous 
existence  in  his  mind.  His  convictions  were  consequents, 
not  antecedents.  Such,  also,  is  the  character  of  geological 
discovery  and  inference,  and  of  the  existing  belief,  —  their 


OLDER    THAN    ITS    ALLEGED   FOUNDATIONS.  289 

joint  production,  —  regarding  the  great  antiquity  of  the  globe. 
No  geologist  worthy  of  the  name  began  with  the  belief,  and  then 
set  himself  to  square  geological  phenomena  with  its  require- 
ments. It  is  a  deduction,  —  a  result ;  —  not  the  starting  as- 
sumption, or  given  sum,  in  a  process  of  calculation,  but  its  ulti- 
mate finding  or  answer.  Clergymen  of  the  orthodox  Churches, 
such  as  the  Sumners,  Sedgwicks,  Bucklands,  Conybeares,  and 
Pye  Smiths  of  England,  or  the  Chalmerses,  Duncans,  and  Flem- 
ings of  our  own  country,  must  have  come  to  the  study  of 
this  question  of  the  world's  age  with  at  least  no  bias  in  favor 
of  the  geological  estimate.  The  old,  and,  as  it  has  proven, 
erroneous  reading  of  the  Mosaic  account,  was  by  much  too 
general  a  one  early  in  the  present  century,  not  to  have  exert- 
ed upon  them,  in  their  character  as  ministers  of  religion,  a 
sensible  influence  of  a  directly  opposite  nature.  And  the  fact 
of  the  complete  reversal  of  their  original  bias,  and  of  the 
broad  unhesitating  finding  on  the  subject  which  they  ulti- 
mately substituted  instead,  serves  to  intimate  to  the  unin- 
itiated the  strength  of  the  evidence  to  which  they  submitted. 
There  can  be  nothing  more  certain  than  that  it  is  minds  of 
the  same  calibre  and  class,  engaged  in  the  same  inductive 
track,  fliat  yielded  in  the  first  instance  to  the  astronomical 
evidence  regarding  the  earth's  motion,  and,  in  the  second,  to 
the  geological  evidence  regarding  the  earth's  age.* 


*  The  chapter  In  wliich  this  passage  occurs  originally  appeared, 
with  several  of  the  others,  in  the  ]Vit?iess  newspaper,  in  a  series  of 
articles,  entitled  "  Rambles  of  a  Geologist,"  and  drew  forth  the 
following  letter  from  a  correspondent  of  the  Scottish  Press,  the 
organ  of  a  powerful  and  thoroughly  respectable  section  of  the  old 
Dissenters  of  Scotland.  I  present  it  to  the  reader  merely  to  show, 
that  if,  according  to  the  author  of  the  "Vestiges,"  geologists  as- 
sailed the  development  hypothesis  in  the  fond  hope  of  "  purchaa? 
25 


290  THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS 

But  how  very  different  the  nature  and  history  of  the  de- 
velopment hypothesis,  and  the  character  of  the  intellects 
with  whom   it   originated,  or   by  whom  it  has  been   since 


ing  impunity  for  themselves,"  they  woxild  succeed  in  securing  only 
disappointment  for  their  pains  :  — 

"THE    PKE-ADAMITE    EARTH. 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Scottish  Press. 

"  Sir,  —  I  occasionally  observe  articles  in  your  neighbor  and 
contemporary  the  Witness,  characteristically  headed  '  Rambles  of 
a  GeologLst,'  wherein  the  writer  with  great  zeal  once  more  'slays 
the  slain '  heresies  of  the  '  Vestiges  of  Creation.'  This  writer  (of 
the  'Rambles,'  I  mean)  nevertheless,  and  at  the  same  time,  an 
nounces  his  own  tenets  to  be  much  of  the  same  sort,  as  applied  ti 
mere  dead  matter,  that  those  of  the  '  Vestiges '  are  with  regard 
to  living  organisms.  He  maintains  that  the  world,  during  the 
last  million  of  years,  has  been  of  itself  rising  or  developing,  without 
the  interposition  of  a  miracle,  from  chaos  into  its  present  state ; 
and,  of  course,  as  it  is  still,  as  a  world,  confessedly  far  below  the 
acme  of  physical  perfection,  that  it  must  be  just  now  on  its  pas- 
sage, self-progressing,  towards  that  point,  -which  terminus  it  may 
reach  in  another  million  of  years  hence.  [! !  !  ]  The  author  of  the 
'  Vestiges,'  as  quoted  by  the  author  of  the  *  Rambles,'  in  the  last 
number  of  the  Witness,  complains  that  the  latter  and  his  allies 
are  not  at  all  so  liberal  to  him  as,  from  their  present  circumstances 
and  position,  he  had  a  right  to  expect.  He  (the  author  of  the 
'Vestiges')  reminds  his  opponents  that  they  have  themselves  only 
lately  emerged  from  the  antiquated  scriptural  notions  that  our 
world  was  the  direct  and  almost  immediate  construction  of  its 
Creator,  —  as  much  so,  in  fact,  as  any  of  its  organized  tenants,  — 
and  that  it  was  then  created  in  a  state  of  physical  excellence,  the 
highest  possible,  to  render  it  a  suitable  habitation  for  these  ten- 
ants, and  all  this  only  about  six  or  seven  thousand  years  ago, 
—  to  the  new  light  of  their  present  physico-Lamarckian  views ; 
and  he  asks,  and  certainly  not  without  reason,  why  should  these 
men,  so  circumstanced,  be  so  anxious  to  stop  him  in  his  attempt 
to  move  one  step  further  forward  in  the  very  direction  they  them- 
selves have  made  the  last  move  ?  —  that  is,  in  his  endeavor  to  ex- 


OLDER   THAN    ITS    ALLEGED    FOUNDATIONS.  291 

adopted !  In  the  first  place,  it  existed  as  a  wild  dream  ere 
Geology  had  any  being  as  a  science.  It  was  an  antecedent, 
not  a  consequent,  —  a  starting  assumption,  not  a  result.     No 

tend  their  own  principles  of  self-development  from  mere  matter 
to  living  creatures.  Now,  Sir,  I  confess  myself  to  be  one  of  those 
(and  possibly  you  may  have  more  readers  similarly  constituted) 
who  not  only  cannot  see  any  great  difference  between  merely  physi' 
cal  and  organic  development,  [!  !]  but  who  would  be  inchned  to  allow 
the  latter,  absurd  as  it  is,  the  advantage  in  point  of  likelihood.  [ !  ! !  ] 
The  author  of  the  « Rambles,'  however,  in  the  face  of  this,  assures 
us  that  his  views  of  physical  self-development  and  long  chronology 
belong  to  the  inductive  sciences.  Now,  I  could  at  this  stage  of 
his  rambles  have  wished  very  much  that,  instead  of  merely  say- 
ing so,  he  had  given  his  demofistration.  He  refers,  indeed,  to 
several  great  men,  who,  he  says,  are  of  his  opinion.  Most  that 
these  men  have  written  on  the  question  at  issue  I  have  seen,  but 
it  apj^eared  far  from  demonstrative,  and  some  of  them,  I  know, 
had  not  fully  made  up  their  mind  on  the  point.  [! !  !]  Perhaps  the 
author  of  the  « Rambles '  could  favor  us  with  the  inductive  pro- 
cess that  converted  himself;  and,  as  the  attainment  of  truth,  and 
not  victory,  is  my  object,  I  promise  either  to  acquiesce  in  or  ration- 
ally refute  it.[?]  Till  then  I  hold  by  my  antiquated  tenets,  that 
our  world,  nay,  the  whole  material  universe,  was  created  about 
six  or  seven  thousand  years  ago,  and  that  in  a  state  of  physical 
excellence  of  which  we  have  in  our  present  fallen  world  only  the 
•vestiges  of  creation.'  I  conclude  by  mentioning  that  this  view 
I  have  held  now  for  nearly  thirty  years,  and,  amidst  all  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  the  philosophical  world  during  that  period,  I  have  never 
seen  cause  to  change  it..  Of  course,  with  this  view  I  was,  during 
the  interval  referred  to,  a  constant  opponent  of  the  once  famous, 
though  now  exploded,  nebular  hypothesis  of  La  Place ;  and  I  yet 
expect  to  see  physical  development  and  long  chronology  wither  also 
on  this  earth,  now  that  theik  eoot  (the  said  hypothesis)  has  been 
eradicated  from  the  sky.[!  !  !]  — I  am.  Sir,  your  most  obedient  ser- 
vant, 

"Philalethes." 

I  am  afraid  there  is  little  hope  of  converting  a  man  who  has 
held  so  stoutly  by  his  notions  "  for  nearly  thirty  years ;  "  especial- 
ly as,  during  that  period,  he   has  been   acquainting  himself  with 


293  THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS. 

one  will  contend  that  Maillet  was  a  geologist.     Geology  ha 
no  place  among  the  sciences  in  the  age  in  which  he  lived, 
and  even  no  name.     And  yet  there  is  a  translation  of  his 


•what  writers  such,  as  Drs.  Chalmers,  Buckland,  and  Pye  Smith 
have  •written  on  the  other  side.  But  for  the  demonstration  "which 
he  asks,  as  /  have  conducted  it,  I  beg  leave  to  refer  him  to  the 
seventeenth  chapter  of  my  Kttle  work,  "  First  Impressions  of 
England  and  its  People."  I  am,  however,  incKned  to  suspect 
that  he  is  one  of  a  class  whose  objections  are  destined  to  be  re- 
moved rather  by  the  operation  of  the  laws  of  matter  than  of 
those  of  mind.  For  it  is  a  comfortable  consideration,  that  in  this 
controversy  the  geologists  have  the  laws  of  matter  on  their  side  ;  — 
"  the  stars  in  their  courses  fight  against  Sisera."  Their  opponents 
now,  like  the  opponents  of  the  astronomer  in  the  ages  gone  by,  are, 
in  most  instances,  men  who  have  been  studying  the  matter  *'  foi 
nearly  thirty  years."  When  they  study  it  for  a  few  years  longei 
they  disappear ;  and  the  men  of  the  same  cast  and  calibre  who  suc- 
ceed them  are  exactly  the  men  who  throw  themselves  most  con- 
fidently into  the  arms  of  the  enemy,  and  look  down  upon  their  poot 
silent  predecessors  with  the  loftiest  commiseration.  It  is,  however, 
not  uninstructive  to  remark  how  thoroughly,  in  some  instances, 
the  weaker  friends  and  the  wilier  enemies  of  Revelation  are  at  one 
in  their  conclusions  respecting  natural  phenomena.  The  corre- 
spondent of  the  Scottish  Press  merely  regards  the  views  of  the  author 
of  the  "Vestiges"  as  possessing  "the  advantage,  in  point  of  likeli- 
hood," over  those  of  the  geologists  his  antagonists :  his  ally  the 
Dean  of  York  goes  greatly  further,  and  stands  up  as  stoutly  for  the 
transmutation  of  species  as  Lamarck  himself.  Descanting,  in  his 
New  System  of  Geology,  on  the  various  forms  of  trilobites,  ammo- 
nites, belemnites,  &c.  Dean  Cockburn  says,  — 

*'  These  creatures  appear  to  have  possessed  the  power  of  secreting 
from  the  stone  beneath  them  a  limy  covering  for  their  backs,  and, 
perhaps,  fed  partly  on  the  same  solid  material.  Supposing,  now, 
that  the  first  trilobites  were  destroyed  by  the  Llandoilo  fc'lates, 
some  spawn  of  these  creatures  would  arise  above  these  flags,  and, 
after  a  time,  would  be  warmed  into  existence.  These  molluscs,  [!  !] 
then,  having  a  better  material  from  which  to  extract  their  food 
and  covering,  would  probably  expand  in  a  slightly  different  form, 
and  "with  a   more   extensive  mantle  than  wh\t  belonged   to    the 


OLDER   THAN    ITS    ALLEGED    FOUNDATIONS.  293 

Tdliamed  now  lying  before  me,  bearing  date  1750,  in  which 
I  find  very  nearly  the  same  account  given  of  the  origin  of 


parent  species.  Tlie  same  would  be  still  more  the  case  with  a  new 
generation,  fed  upon  a  new  deposit  from  some  deeper  volcano,  such 
as  the  Caradoc  or  Wenlock  Limestone,  in  which  lime  more  and  more 
predominates.  Now,  if  any  one  Avill  examine  the  various  prints  of 
trilobites  in  Sir  R.  Murchison's  valuable  work,  he  will  find  but  very 
trifling  differences  in  any  of  them,  [! !]  and  those  differences  only  in 
the  stony  covering  of  their  backs.  I  knew  two  brothers  once 
much  alike :  the  one  became  a  curate  with  a  large  family ;  the 
other  a  London  alderman.  K  the  skins  of  these  two  pachydermata 
had  been  preserved  in  a  fossil  state,  there  would  have  been  less 
resemblance  between  them  than  between  an  Asaphus  tyranmts  and 
an  Asaphus  caudatus.  *  *  *  A  careful  and  laborious  investi- 
gation has  discovered,  as  in  the  trilobites,  a  difference  in  the  am- 
monites of  different  strata ;  but  such  differences,  as  in  the  former 
case,  exist  only  in  the  form  of  the  external  shell,  and  may  be  ex- 
plained in  the  same  manner.  [! !]  *  *  *  As  to  the  scaphites, 
baculites,  belemnites,  and  all  the  other  ites  which  learned  ingenu- 
ity has  so  named,  you  find  them  in  various  strata  the  same  in  aU 
important  particulars,  but  also  differing  slightly  in  their  outward 
coverings,  as  might  be  expected  from  the  different  circumstances 
in  which  each  variety  was  placed.  [! !]  The  sheep  in  the  warm  val- 
leys of  Andalusia  have  a  fine  covering  like  to  hair ;  but  remove 
them  to  a  northern  climate,  and  in  a  few  generations  the  back  is 
covered  with  shaggy  wool.  The  animal  is  the  same,  —  the  covering 
only  is  changed.  *  *  ♦  The  learned  have  classed  those  shells 
under  the  names  of  terebratula,  orthis,  atrypa,  pecten,  &c.  They 
are  all  much  alike.  [! !  I]  It  requires  an  experienced  eye  to  distin- 
guish them  one  from  another  :  what  little  differences  have  been 
pointed  out  may  readily  be  ascribed,  as  before,  to  difference  of 
Situation."    [!  ! !] 

The  author  of  the  "Vestiges,"  with  this,  the  fundamental  por- 
tion of  his  case,  granted  to  him  by  the  Dean,  will  have  exceedingly 
little  difficulty  in  making  out  the  rest  for  himself.  The  passage  is, 
however,  not  without  its  value,  as  illustrative  of  the  darkness,  in 
matters  of  physical  science,  "  even  darkness  which  may  be  felt," 
that  is  suffered  to  linger,  in  this  the  most  scientific  of  ages,  in  tie 
Church  of  Buckland,  Sedgwick,  and  Conybeare. 
25* 


294  THE  DEVELOPMENT  HYPOTHESIS 

animals  an  3  plants  as  that  in  the  "  Vestiges,"  and  in  which 
the  sea  is  described  as  that  great  and  fruitful  womb  of  na- 
ture in  which  organization  and  life  first  began.  Lamarck, 
at  the  time  when  Maillet  wrote,  was  a  boy  in  his  sixth 
year.  He  became,  comparatively  early  in  life,  a  skilful  bota- 
nist and  conchologist ;  but  not  until  turned  of  fifty  did  he 
set  himself  to  study  general  zoology ;  and  his  greater  work 
on  the  invertebrate  animals,  on  which  his  fame  as  a  naturalist 
chiefly  rests,  did  not  begin  to  appear  —  for  it  was  published 
serially  —  until  the  year  1815.  But  his  development  hypothe- 
sis, identical  with  that  of  the  "  Vestiges,"  was  given  to  the 
world  long  before,  —  in  1802  ;  at  a  time  when  it  had  not  been 
ascertained  that  there  existed  placoids  during  the  Silurian 
period,  or  ganoids  during  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  period,  or 
enaliosaurs  during  the  Oolitic  period ;  and  when,  though 
Smith  had  constructed  his  "  Tabular  View  of  the  British 
Strata,"  his  map  had  not  yet  appeared,  and  there  was  little 
more  known  regarding  the  laws  of  superposition  among  the 
stratified  rocks  than  was  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of 
Werner.  And  if  the  presumption  be  strong,  in  the  circum- 
stances, that  Lamarck  originated  his  development  hypothe- 
sis ere  he  became  in  any  very  great  degree  skilful  as  a  zoolo- 
gist, it  is  no  mere  presumption,  but  a  demonstrable  truth, 
that  he  originated  it  ere  he  became  a  geologist ;  for  a  geolo- 
gist he  never  became.  In  common  with  Maillet  and  BufTon, 
he  held  by  Leibnitz's  theory  of  a  universal  ocean  ;  and  such, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  was  his  ignorance  of  fossils,  that 
he  erected  dermal  fragments  of  the  Russian  Asterolepis  into 
a  new  genus  of  Polyparia,  —  an  error  into  which  the  merest 
tyro  in  palaeontology  could  not  now  fall.  Such,  in  relation 
to  these  sciences,  was  the  man  who  perfected  the  dream  of 
development.     Nor  has  the  most  distinguished  of  its  continen- 


OLDER   THAN    ITS    ALLEGED   FOUNDATIONS.  295 

tal  assertors  now  living, —  Professor  Oken,  —  any  higher 
claim  to  be  regarded  as  a  disciple  of  the  inductive  school  of 
Geology  than  Lamarck.  In  the  preface  to  the  recently  pub- 
lished translation  of  his  "  Physio-Philosophy,"  we  find  the 
following  curious  confession: — "  I  wrote  the  first  edition  of 
1810  in  a  kind  of  inspiration,  and  on  that  account  it  was 
not  so  well  arranged  as  a  systematic  work  ought  to  be.  Now, 
though  this  may  appear  to  have  been-amended  in  the  second  and 
third  edition,  yet  still  it  was  not  possible  for  me  to  completely 
attain  the  object  held  in  view.  The  book  has  therefore  re- 
mained essentially  the  same  as  regards  its  fundamental  prin- 
ciples. It  is  only  the  empirical  arrangement  into  series  of 
plants  and  animals  that  has  been  modified  from  time  to  time, 
in  accordance  with  the  scientijic  elevation  of  their  several  de- 
partments, or  just  as  discoveries  and  anatomical  investigations 
have  increased,  and  rendered  some  other  position  of  the  objects 
a  matter  of  necessity.''^  An  interesting  piece  of  evidence 
this  ;  but  certainly  rather  simple  as  a  confession.  It  will  be 
found  that  while  whatever  gives  value  to  the  "  Physio-Philoso- 
phy "  of  the  German  Professor  (a  work  which,  if  divested  of 
all  the  inspired  bits,  would  be  really  a  good  one)  was  acquired 
either  before  or  since  its  first  appearance  in  the  ordinary  way, 
its  development  hypothesis  came  direct  from  the  god.  Fur- 
ther, as  I  have  already  had  occasion  to  state,  Oken  holds,  like 
Lamarck  and  Maillet,  by  the  universal  ocean  of  Leibnitz  ;  he 
holds,  also,  that  the  globe  is  a  vast  crystal,  just  a  little  flawed 
in  the  facets;  and  that  the  three  granitic  components  — 
quartz,  feldspar,  and  mica  —  are  simply  the  hail-drops  of 
heavy  stone  showers  that  shot  athwart  the  original  ocean,  and 
accumulated  into  rock  at  the  bottom,  as  snow  or  hail  shoots 
athwar:  the  upper  atmosphere,  and  accumulates,  in  the  form 
of  ice  on  the  summits  of  high  hills,  or  in  the  arctic  or  antarc- 


296  APPEAL    FROM    SCIENCE 

tic  regions.  Such,  in  the  present  day,  are  the  geological  no- 
tions of  Oken  !  They  were  doubtless  all  promulgated  in  what 
is  modestly  enough  termed  "  a  kind  of  inspiration  ; "  and 
there  are  few  now  so  ignorant  of  Geology  as  not  to  know  that 
the  possessing  agent  in  the  case  —  for  inspiration  is  not  quite 
the  proper  word  —  must  have  been  at  least  of  kin  to  that 
ingenious  personage  who  volunteered  of  old  to  be  a  lying 
spirit  in  the  mouths  of  the  four  hundred  prophets.  And  the 
well-known  fact,  that  the  most  popular  contemporary  ex- 
pounder of  Oken's  hypothesis  —  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges" 
—  has  in  every  edition  of  his  work  been  correcting,  modify- 
ing, or  altogether  withdrawing  his  statements  regarding  both 
geological  and  zoological  phenomena,  and  thai  his  gradual 
development  as  a  geologist  and  zoologist,  from  the  sufficiently 
low  type  of  acquirement  to  which  his  first  edition  bore  witness, 
may  be  traced,  in  consequence,  with  a  distinctness  and  cer- 
tainty which  we  in  vain  seek  in  the  cases  of  presumed  devel- 
opment which  he  would  so  fain  establish, — has  in  its  bearing 
exactly  the  same  effect.  His  development  hypothesis  was 
complete  at  a  time  when  his  geology  and  zoology  were  rudi- 
mental  and  imperfect.  Give  me  your  facts,  said  the  French- 
man, that  I  may  accommodate  them  to  my  theory.  And  no  one 
can  look  at  the  progress  of  the  Lamarckian  hypothesis,  with 
reference  to  the  dates  when,  and  the  men  by  whom,  it  was  pro- 
mulgated, without  recognizing  in  it  one  of  perhaps  the  most 
striking  embodiments  of  the  Frenchman's  principle  which  the 
world  ever  saw.  It  is  not  the  illiberal  religionist  that  rejects 
and  casts  it  off,  —  it  is  the  inductive  philosopher.  Science 
addresses  its  assertors  in  the  language  of  the  possessed  to  the 
sons  of  Sceva  the  Jew  ; — "  The  astronomer  I  know,  and  the 
geologist  1  know ;  but  who  are  ye  .?  " 

One   of   the   strangest  passages   in   the   "  Sequel   to  the 


TO    THE    WANT    OP    IT.  297 

Vestiges,"  .3  that  in  which  its  author  carries  his  appeal  from 
the  tribunal  of  science  to  "  another  tribunal,"  indicated  but 
not  named,  before  which  "  this  new  philosophy  "  [remarkable 
chiefly  for  being  neither  philosophy  nor  new]  "  is  to  be  truly 
and  righteously  judged."  The  principle  is  obvious,  on  which, 
were  his  opponents  mere  theologians,  wholly  unable,  though 
they  saw  the  mischievous  character  and  tendency  of  his  con- 
clusions, to  disprove  them  scientifically,  he  might  appeal  from 
theology  to  science  :  "  it  is  with  scientific  truth,"  he  might 
urge,  "  not  with  moral  consequences,  that  I  have  aught  to  do." 
But  on  what  allowable  principle,  professing,  as  he  does,  to 
found  his  theory  on  scientific  fact,  can  he  appeal  from  science 
to  the  want  of  it  }  "  After  discussing,"  he  says,  "  the  whole 
arguments  on  both  sides  in  so  ample  a  manner,  it  may  be 
hardly  necessary  to  advert  to  the  objection  arising  from  the 
mere  fact,  that  nearly  all  the  scientific  men  are  opposed  to  the 
theory  of  the  '  Vestiges.'  As  this  objection,  however,  is  like- 
ly to  be  of  some  avail  with  many  minds,  it  ought  not  to  be 
entirely  passed  over.  If  I  did  not  think  there  were  reasons, 
independent  of  judgment,  for  the  scientific  class  coming  so 
generally  to  this  conclusion,  I  might  feel  the  more  embar- 
rassed in  presenting  myself  in  direct  opposition  to  so  many  men 
possessing  talents  and  information.  As  the  case  really  stands, 
the  ability  of  this  class  to  give  at  the  present  a  true  response 
upon  such  a  subject  appears  extremely  challengeable.  It  is 
no  discredit  to  them  that  they  are,  almost  without  exception, 
engaged  each  in  his  own  little  department  of  science,  and 
able  to  give  little  or  no  attention  to  other  parts  of  that  vast 
field.  From  year  t.:)  year,  and  from  age  to  age,  we  see  them 
at  work,  adding,  no  doubt,  mu^h  to  the  known,  and  advanc- 
ing many  important  interests,  but  at  the  same  time  doing 
little  for  the  establishment  of  comprehensive  views  of  nature. 


298  APPEAL    FROM    SCIENCE 

Experiments  in  however  narrow  a  walk,  facts  of  whatever 
minuteness,  make  reputations  in  scientific  societies  ;  all  beyond 
is  regarded  with  suspicion  and  distrust.  The  consequence  is, 
that  philosophy,  as  it  exists  amongst  us,  does  nothing  to  raise 
its  votaries  above  the  common  ideas  of  their  time.  There 
can  therefore  be  nothing  more  conclusive  against  our  hy- 
pothesis in  the  disfavor  of  the  scientific  class,  than  in  that  of 
any  other  section  of  educated  men." 

This  is  surely  a  very  strange  statement.  Waiving  alto- 
gether the  general  fact,  that  great  original  discoverers  in  any 
department  of  knowledge  are  never  men  of  one  science  or 
one  faculty,  but  possess,  on  the  contrary,  breadth  of  mind 
and  multiplicity  of  acquirement;  —  waiving,  too,  iheparticU' 
lar  fact,  that  the  more  distinguished  original  discoverers  of 
the  present  day  rank  among  at  once  its  most  philosophic, 
most  elegant,  and  most  extensively  informed  writers  ;  —  grant- 
ing, for  the  argument's  sake,  that  our  scientific  men  are  men 
of  narrow  acquirement,  and  "  exclusively  engaged,  each  in 
his  own  little  departrient  of  science  ;  "  — it  is  surely  rational 
to  hold,  notwithstanding,  that  in  at  least  these  little  depart- 
ments they  have  a  better  right  to  be  heard  than  any  other 
class  of  persons  whatever.  We  must  surely  not  refuse  to  the 
man  of  science  what  we  at  once  grant  to  the  common  me- 
chanic. A  cotton-weaver  or  calico-printer  may  be  a  very 
narrow  man,  "  exclusively  engaged  in  his  own  little  depart- 
ment;" and  yet  certain  it  is  that,  in  a  question  of  cotton-weav- 
ing or  calico-printing,  his  evidence  is  justly  deemed  mere 
conclusive  in  courts  of  law  than  that  of  any  other  man, 
however  mii»;h  his  superior  in  general  breadth  and  intelli- 
gence. And  had  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  "  founded  his 
hypothesis  on  certain  facts  pertaining  to  the  arts  of  cottoa- 
vveaving   and  calico-printing,  the   cotton-weaver  and  calico- 


TO    THE    WANT    OF    IT.  299 

printer  would  have  an  indisputable  right  to  be  heard  on  the 
question  of  their  general  correctness.  Are  we  to  regard  the 
case  as  different  because  it  is  on  facts  pertaining  to  science, 
not  to  cotton-weaving  or  calico-printing,  that  he  professes  to 
found  ?  His  hypothesis,  unless  supported  by  scientific  evi- 
dence, is  a  mere  dream,  —  a  fiction  as  baseless  and  wild  as 
any  in  the  "  Fairy  Tales"  or  the  "  Arabian  Nights."  And, 
fully  sensible  of  the  fact,  he  calls  in  as  witnesses  the  physical 
sciences,  and  professes  to  take  down  their  evidence.  He 
calls  into  court  Astronomy,  Geology,  Phytology,  and  Zoology. 
"  Hold  ! "  exclaims  the  astronomer,  as  the  examination  goes 
on  ;  "  you  are  taking  the  evidence  of  my  special  science  most 
unfairly  ;  I  challenge  a  right  of  cross-examining  the  witness." 
"  Hold  !  "  cries  the  geologist ;  "  you  are  putting  my  science  to 
the  question,  and  extorting  from  it,  in  its  agony,  a  whol9 
series  of  fictions  :  I  claim  the  right  of  examining  it  fairly  and 
softly,  and  getting  from  it  just  the  sober  truth,  and  nothing 
more."  And  the  phytologist  and  zoologist  urge  exactly  sim- 
ilar cairns.  "  No,  gentlemen,"  replies  the  author  of  the 
"  Vestiges,"  "  you  are  narrow  men,  confined  each  of  you  to 
his  own  little  department,  and  so  I  will  not  permit  you  to 
cross-examine  the  witnesses."  "  What !  "  rejoin  the  men  of" 
science,  "  not  permit  us  to  examine  our  own  witnesses  !  —  re- 
fuse to  us  what  you  would  at  once  concede  to  the  cotton- 
weaver  or  the  calico-printer,  were  the  question  one  of  cotton- 
weaving  or  of  calico-printing!  We  are  surely  not  much 
narrower  men  than  the  man  of  cotton  or  the  man  of  calico 
It  is  but  in  our  own  little  departments  that  we  ask  to  be  heard." 
"  But  you  shall  not  be  heard,  gentlemen,"  says  the  author  of 
the  "  Vestiges  ;  "  "  at  all  events,  I  shall  not  care  one  farthmg 
for  anything  you  say.  For  observe,  gentlemen,  my  hypothe- 
sis is  nothing  without  the  evidence  of  your  sciences ;  and  you 


300  HUME   VEKSTIS 

all  unite,  I  see,  in  taking  that  evidence  from  me ;  and  so  1 
confidently  raise  my  appeal  in  this  matter  to  people  who 
know  nothing  about  either  you  or  your  sciences.  It  must  be 
before  another  tribunal  that  the  new  philosophy  is  to  be  truly 
and  righteously  judged."  Alas !  what  can  this  mean  ?  or 
where  are  we  to  seek  for  that  tribunal  of  last  resort  to  which 
this  ingenious  man  refers  with  such  confidence  the  consider- 
ation of  his  case  ?  Can  it  mean,  that  he  appeals  from  the 
only  class  of  persons  qualified  to  judge  of  his  facts,  to  a  class 
ignorant  of  these,  but  disposed  by  habits  of  previous  scepti- 
cism to  acquiesce  in  his  conclusions,  and  take  his  premises  for 
granted; — that  he  appeals  from  astronomers  and  geologists 
to  low-minded  materialists  and  shallow  phrenologers,  —  from 
phytologists  and  zoologists  to  mesmerists  and  phreno-mesmer- 
ists  ? 

I  remember  being  much- struck,  several  years  ago,  by  a  re- 
mark dropped  in  conversation  by  the  late  Rev.  Mr.  Stewart 
of  Cromarty,  one  of  the  most  original-minded  men  I  ever 
knew.  "  In  reading  in  my  Greek  New  Testament  this  morn- 
ing," he  said,  "  I  was  curiously  impressed  by  a  thought 
which,  simple  as  it  may  seem,  never  occurred  to  me  before. 
The  portion  which  I  perused  was  in  the  First  Epistle  of  Peter; 
and  as  I  passed  from  the  thinking  of  th§  passage  to  the  lan- 
guage in  which  it  is  expressed, — 'This  Greek  of  the  un 
taught  Galilean  fisherman,'  —  I  said,  '  so  admired  by  scholars 
and  critics  for  its  unaffected  dignity  and  force,  was  not  ac- 
quired, as  that  of  Paul  may  have  been,  in  the  ordinary  way, 
but  formed  a  portion  of  the  Pentecostal  gift !  Here,  then, 
immediately  under  my  eye,  on  these  pages,  are  there  em- 
bodied, not,  as  in  many  other  parts  of  the  Scriptures,  the 
mere  details  of  a  miracle,  but  the  direct  results  of  a  miracle. 
How  strange  !     Had  the  old  tables  of  stone  been  placed  be- 


THE    STONY    SCIENCE.  301 

» 

fore  me,  with  what  an  awe-struck  feeling  would  I  have  looked 
on  the  characters  traced  upon  them  by  God's  own  finger ! 
How  is  it  that  I  have  failed  to  remember  that,  in  the  language 
of  these  Epistles,  miraculously  impressed  by  the  Divine 
power  upon  the  mind,  I  possessed  as  significant  and  suggest- 
ive a  relic  as  that  which  the  inscription  miraculously  impressed 
by  the  Divine  power  upon  the  stone  could  possibly  have  fur- 
nished ?  "  It  was  a  striking  thought ;  and  in  the  course  of 
our  walk,  which  led  us  over  richly  fossiliferous  beds  of  ^he 
Old  Red  Sandstone,  to  a  deposit  of  the  Eathie  Lias,  largely 
charged  with  the  characteristic  rentiains  of  that  formation,  I 
ventured  to  connect  it  with  another.  "  In  either  case,"  I  re- 
marked, as  we  seated  ourselves  beside  a  sea-cliff,  sculptured 
over  with  the  impressions  of  extinct  plants  and  shells,  "  your 
relics,  whether  of  the  Pentecostal  Greek  or  of  the  characters 
inscribed  on  the  old  tables  of  stone,  could  address  themselves 
to  but  previously  existing  belief.  The  sceptic  would  see  in 
the  Sinaitic  characters,  were  they  placed  before  him,  merely 
the  work  of  an  ordinary  tool ;  and  in  the  Greek  of  Peter  and 
John,  a  well-known  language,  acquired,  he  would  hold,  in 
the  common  way.  But  what  say  you  to  the  relics  that  stand 
out  in  such  bold  relief  from  the  rocks  beside  us,  in  their  char- 
acter as  the  results  of  miracle  }  The  perished  tribes  and 
races  which  they  represent  all  began  to  exist.  There  is  no 
truth  which  science  can  more  conclusively  demonstrate  than 
that  they  had  all  a  beginning.  The  infidel  who,  in  this  late 
age  of  the  world,  would  attempt  falling  back  on  the  fiction  of 
an  '  infinite  series,'  would  be  laughed  to  scorn.  They  all  be- 
gan to  be.  But  how  ?  No  true  geologist  holds  by  the  devel- 
opment hypothesis;  —  it  has  been  resigned  to  sciolists  and 
smatterers  ; — and  there  is  but  one  other  alternative.  Tiiey 
began  to  be,  through  the  miracle  of  creation.  From  the  evi- 
26 


302  HTIME   VERSUS    THE    STONY    SCIENCE. 

dence  furnished  by  these  rocks  we  are  shut  down  either  to 
the  beUef  in  miracle,  or  to  the  belief  .n  something  else  in- 
finitely harder  of  reception,  and  as  thoroughly  unsupported 
by  testimony  as  it  is  contrary  to  experience.  Hume  is  at 
length  answered  by  the  severe  truths  of  the  stony  science. 
He  was  not,  according  to  Job,  '  in  league  w'th  the  stones  of 
the  field,'  and  they  have  risen  in  irresistible  warfare  against 
him  in  the  Creator's  behalf." 


FINAL    CAUSES. 


3f^3 


FINAL  CAUSES.  — THEIR  BEARING  ON  GEOLOGIC 
HISTORY. 

CONCLUSION. 


"  Natural  History  has  a  principle  on  which  to  reason," 
says  Cuvier, "  which  is  peculiar  to  it,  and  which  it  employs 
advantageously  on  many  occasions:  it  is  that  of  the  con- 
dUions  of  existence^  commonly  termed  J?naZ  causes^ 

In  Geology,  which  is  Natural  History  extended  over  all 
ages,  this  principle  has  a  still  wider  scope, —  embracing  not 
merely  the  characteristics  and  conditions  of  the  beings  which 
now  exist,  but  of  all,  so  far  as  we  can  learn  regarding  them, 
which  have  ever  existed,  and  involving  the  consideration 
of  not  merely  their  peculiarities  as  races  placed  before  us 
without  relation  to  time,  but  also  of  the  history  of  their  rise, 
increase,  decline,  and  extinction.  In  studying  the  biography, 
if  I  may  so  express  myself,  of  an  individual  animal,  we  have 
to  acquaint  ourselves  with  the  circumstances  in  which  nature 
has  placed  it,  —  its  adaptation  to  these,  both  in  structure  and 
instinct,  —  the  points  of  resemblance  which  it  presents  to  the 
individuals  of  other  races  and  families,  and  the  laws  Jvhich 
determine  its  terms  of  development,  vigoro'  s  existence,  and 
decay.     And  all  Natural  History,  when  restricted  to  the  pass- 


304  BEARING   OF   FINAL   CAUSES 

ing  now  of  the  world's  annals,  is  simply  a  congeries  of  biog. 
raphies.  It  is  when  we  extend  our  view  into  the  geologica. 
field  that  it  passes  from  biography  into  history  proper,  and 
that  we  have  to  rise  from  the  consideration  of  the  birth  and 
death  of  individuals,  which,  in  all  mere  biographies,  form  the 
great  terminal  events  that  constitute  beginning  and  end,  to  a 
survey  of  the  birth  and  death  of  races,  and  the  elevation  or 
degradation  of  dynasties  and  sub-kingdoms. 

We  learn  from  human  history  that  nations  are  as  certainly 
mortal  as  men.  They  enjoy  a  greatly  longer  term  of  exist- 
ence, but  they  die  at  last :  Rollin's  History  of  Ancient  Na- 
tions is  a  history  of  the  dead.  And  we  are  taught  by  geologi- 
cal history,  in  like  manner,  that  species  are  as  mortal  as  indi- 
viduals and  nations,  and  that  even  genera  and  families  become 
extinct.  There  is  no  man  upon  earth  at  the  present  moment 
whose  age  greatly  exceeds  an  hundred  years  ;  —  there  is  no 
nation  now  upon  earth  (if  we  perhaps  except  the  long-lived 
Chinese)  that  also  flourished  three  thousand  years  ago  ;  — 
there  is  no  species  now  living  upon  earth  that  dates  beyond  the 
times  of  the  Tertiary  deposits.  All  bear  the  stamp  of  death, 
—  individuals,  —  nations,  —  species  ;  and  we  may  scarce  less 
safely  predicate,  looking  upon  the  past,  that  it  is  appointed  for 
nations  and  species  to  die,  than  that  it  "  is  appointed  for  man 
once  to  die."  Even  our  own  species,  as  now  constituted, — 
with  instincts  that  conform  to  the  original  injunction, "  increase 
and  multiply,"  and  that,  in  consequence,  "  marry  and  are  given 
in  marriage,"  —  shall  one  day  cease  to  exist :  a  fact  not  less 
in  accordance  with  beliefs  inseparable  from  the  faith  of  the 
Christian,  than  with  the  widely-founded  experience  of  the 
geologist.  Now,  it  is  scarce  possible  for  the  human  mind  to 
become  acqua'nted  with  the  fact,  that  at  certain  periods  species 
began  to  exist  and  then,  after  the  lapse  of  untold  ages,  ceased 


ON   GEOLOGIC    HISTORY.  305 

to  be,  without  inquiring  whether,  from  the  "  conditions  of  ex- 
istence, commonly  termed  final  causes,"  we  cannot  deduce 
a  reason  fir  their  rise  or  decline,  or  why  their  term  of  being 
should  have  been  included  rather  in  one  certain  period  of  time 
than  another.  The  same  faculty  which  finds  employment  in 
tracing  to  their  causes  the  rise  and  fall  of  nations,  and  which 
it  is  the  merit  of  the  philosophic  historian  judiciously  to  exer- 
cise, will  to  a  certainty  seek  employment  in  this  department 
of  history  a'so ;  and  that  there  will  be  an  appetency  for  such 
speculations  in  the  public  mind,  we  may  infer  from  the  suc- 
cess, as  a  literary  undertaking,  of  the  "  Vestiges  of  Creation," 
—  a  work  that  bears  the  same  sort  of  relation,  in  this  special 
field  to  sober  inquiry,  founded  on  the  true  conditions  of  things, 
that  the  legends  of  the  old  chroniclers  bore  to  authentic  his- 
tory. The  progressive  state  of  geologic  science  has  hitherto 
militated  against  the  formation  of  theory  of  the  soberer  char- 
acter. Its  facts — still  merely  in  the  forming  —  are  neces- 
sarily imperfect  in  their  classification,  and  limited  in  their 
amount ;  and  thus  the  essential  data  continues  incomplete. 
Besides,  the  men  best  acquainted  with  the  basis  of  fact  which 
already  exists,  have  quite  enough  to  engage  them  in  adding 
to  it.  But  there  are  limits  to  the  field  of  palseontological  dis- 
covery, in  its  relation  to  what  may  be  termed  the  chronology 
of  organized  existence,  which,  judging  from  the  progress  of 
the  science  in  the  past,  may  be  well  nigh  reached  in  favored 
localities,  such  as  the  British  islands,  in  about  a  quarter  of  a 
century  from  the  present  time  ;  and  then,  I  doubt  not,  geologi- 
cal history,  in  legitimate  conformity  with  the  laws  of  mind, 
and  from  the  existence  of  the  pregnant  principle  peculiar,  ac 
cording  to  Cuvier,  to  that  science  of  which  Geology  is 
simply  an  extension,  will  assume  a  very  extraordinary  form 
We  cannot  yet  aspire  "  to  the  height  of  this  great  argument :  " 
26* 


306  BEARING  OF  FINAL  CAUSES 

our  foundations  are  in  parts  still  unconsolidated  and  incom- 
plete, and  unfitted  to  sustain  the  perfect  superstructure  which 
shall  one  day  assuredly  rise  upon  them  ;  but  from  the  little 
which  we  can  now  see,  "  as  if  in  a  glass  darkly,"  enough  ap- 
pears from  which  to 

"  Assert  eternal  Providence, 
And  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men." 

The  history  of  the  four  great  monarchies  of  the  world  was 
typified,  in  the  prophetic  dream  of  the  ancient  Babylonish 
king,  by  a  colossal  image,  "  terrible  in  its  form  and  bright- 
ness," of  which  the  "  head  was  pure  gold,"  the  "  breast  and 
arms  of  silver,"  the  "  belly  and  thighs  of  brass,"  and  the  legs 
and  feet  "  of  iron,  and  of  iron  mingled  with  clay."  The 
vision  in  which  it  formed  the  central  object  was  appropriately 
that  of  a  puissant  monarch ;  and  the  image  itself  typified  the 
merely  human  monarchies  of  the  earth.  It  would  require  a 
widely  different  figure  to  symbolize  the  great  monarchies 
of  creation.  And  yet  Revelation  does  furnish  such  a  figure. 
It  is  that  which  was  witnessed  by  the  captive  prophet  beside 
"the  river  Chebar,"  when  "  the  heavens  were  opened,  and 
he  saw  visions  of  God."  In  that  chariot  of  Deity,  glowing 
in  fire  and  amber,  with  its  complex  wheels  "  so  high  that 
they  were  dreadful,"  set  round  about  with  eyes,  there  were 
living  creatures,  of  whose  four  faces  three  were  brute  and 
one  human  ;  and  high  over  all  sat  the  Son  of  Man.  It  would 
almost  seem  as  if,  in  this  sublime  vision,  —  in  which,  with 
features  distinct  enough  to  impress  the  imagination,  there 
mingle  the  elements  of  an  awful  incomprehensibility,  and 
which  even  the  genius  of  Raflaelle  has  failed  adequately  to 
portray,  —  the  history  of  all  the  past  and  of  all  the  future  had 
been  symbolized.  In  the  order  of  Providence  intimated  in  the 
geologic  record,  the  brute  faces,  as  in  the  vision,  outnumber 


ON   GEOLOGIC   HISTORY.  307 

ilie  human  ;  —  the  human  dynasty  is  one,  and  the  dynasties 
of  fie  inferior  animals  are  three  ;  and  yet  who  can  doubt  that 
they  all  equally  compose  parts  of  a  well-ordered  and  perfect 
whole,  as  the  four  faces  formed  but  one  cherubim  ;  that  they 
have  been  moving  onward  to  a  definite  goal,  in  the  unity  of 
one  grand  harmonious  design,  —  now  "  Hfted  up  high"  over 
the  comprehension  of  earth,  —  now  let  down  to  its  humble 
level ;  and  that  the  Creator  of  all  has  been  ever  seated  over 
them  on  the  throne  of  his  providence,  —  a  "  likeness  in  the 
appearance  of  a  man," — embodying  the  perfection  of  his 
nature  in  his  workings,  and  determining  the  end  from  the  be- 
ginning? 

There  is  geologic  evidence,  as  has  been  shown,  that  in  the 
course  of  creation  the  higher  orders  succeeded  the  lower. 
We  have  no  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  mollusc  and  crus- 
tacean preceded  the  fish,  seeing  that  discovery,  in  its  slow 
course,  has  already  traced  the  vertebrata  in  the  ichthyic  form^ 
down  to  deposits  which  only  a  few  years  ago  were  regarded 
as  representatives  of  the  first  beginnings  of  organized  exist- 
ence on  our  planet,  and  that  it  has  at  the  same  time  failed  to 
add  a  lower  system  to  that  in  which  their  remains  occur. 
But  the  fish  seems  most  certainly  to  have  preceded  the  rep- 
tile and  the  bird ;  the  reptile  and  the  bird  to  have  preceded 
the  mammiferous  quadruped ;  and  the  mammiferous  quadru- 
ped to  have  preceded  man,  —  rational,  accountable  man, 
whom  God  created  in  his  own  image,  —  the  much-loved  Ben- 
jamin of  the  family,  —  last-born  of  all  creatures.  It  is  of  itself 
an  extraordinary  fact,  without  reference  to  other  considera 
tions,  that  the  order  adopted  by  Cuvier,  in  his  animal  kingdom, 
as  that  in  which  the  four  great  classes  of  vertebrate  animalsj 
when  marshalled  according  to  their  rank  and  standing,  natu- 
-ally  range  should  be  also  that  in  which  they  occur  in  order  of 


308  BEARING  OF  FINAL  CAUSES 

time.  The  brain  which  bears  an  average  proportion  to  the 
Hpinal  cord  of  not  more  than  two  to  one,  came  first,  —  it  is  the 
brain  of  the  fish ;  that  which  bears  to  the  spinal  cord  an  av- 
erage proportion  of  two  and  a  half  to  one  succeeded  it, —  it 
is  the  brain  of  the  reptile  ;  then  came  the  brain  averaging  as 
three  to  one,  —  it  is  that  of  the  bird  ;  next  in  succession  came 
the  brain  that  averages  as  four  to  one,  —  it  is  that  of  the  mam- 
mal ;  and  last  of  all  there  appeared  a  brain  that  averages  as 
twenty -three  to  one,  —  reasoning,  calculating  man  had  come 
upon  the  scene.  All  the  facts  of  geological  science  are  hos- 
tile to  the  Lamarckian  conclusion,  that  the  lower  brains  were 
developed  into  the  higher.  As  if  with  the  express  intention 
of  preventing  so  gross  a  mis-reading  of  the  record,  we  find, 
in  at  least  two  classes  of  animals, —  fishes  and  reptiles,  —  the 
higher  races  placed  at  the  beginning  :  the  slope  of  the  inclined 
plane  is  laid,  if  one  may  so  speak,  in  the  reverse  way,  and, 
instead  of  rising  towards  the  level  of  the  succeeding  class, 
inclines  downwards,  with  at  least  the  efl^ect,  if  not  the  design, 
of  making  the  break  where  they  meet  exceedingly  well 
marked  and  conspicuous.  And  yet  the  record  does  seem  to 
speak  of  development  and  progression  ;  —  not,  however,  in  the 
province  of  organized  existence,  but  in  that  of  insensate 
matter,  subject  to  the  purely  chemical  laws.  It  is  in  the  style 
and  character  of  the  dwelling-place  that  gradual  improvement 
seems  to  have  taken  place  ;  —  not  in  the  functions  or  the  rank 
of  any  class  of  its  inhabitants  ;  and  it  is  with  special  reference 
to  this  gradual  improvement  in  our  common  mansion-house 
the  earth,  in  its  bearing  on  the  "  conditions  of  existence," 
that  not  a  few  of  our  reasonings  regarding  the  introduction 
and  extinction  of  species  and  genera  must  proceed. 

That  definite  period  at  which  man  was  introduced  upon 
>he  scene  seems  to  have  been  specially  determined  by  the 


ON   GEOLOGIC   HISTORY.  309 

conditions  of  correspondence  which  the  phenomena  of  his 
habitation  had  at  length  come  to  assume  with  the  predes- 
tined constitution  of  his  mind.  The  large  reasoning  brain 
would  have  been  wholly  out  of  place  in  the  earlier  ages.  It 
is  indubitably  the  nature  of  man  to  base  the  conclusions 
which  regulate  all  his  actions  on  fixed  phenomena  ;  —  he  rea- 
sons from  cause  to  effect,  or  from  effect  to  cause  ;  and  when 
placed  in  circumstances  in  which,  from  some  lack  of  the 
necessary  basis,  he  cannot  so  reason,  he  becomes  a  wretched, 
timid,  superstitious  creatrjre,  greatly  more  helpless  and  ab- 
ject than  even  the  inferior  animals  This  unhappy  state  is 
strikingly  exemplified  by  that  deep  and  peculiar  impression 
made  on  the  mind  by  a  severe  earthquake,  which  Hum- 
boldt, from  his  own  experience,  so  powerfully  describes. 
"  This  impression,"  he  says,  "  is  not,  in  my  opinion,  the  re- 
sult of  a  recollection  of  those  fearful  pictures  of  devasta- 
tion presented  to  our  imagination  by  the  historical  narra- 
tives of  the  past,  but  is  rather  due  to  the  sudden  revelation 
of  the  delusive  nature  of  the  inherent  faith  by  which  we  had 
clung  to  a  belief  in  the  immobility  of  the  solid  parts  of  the 
earth.  We  are  accustomed  from  early  childhood  to  draw  a 
contrast  between  the  mobility  of  water  and  the  immobility 
of  the  soil  on  which  we  tread;  and  this  feeling  is  confirmed 
by  the  evidence  of  our  senses.  When,  therefore,  wo  sud- 
denly feel  the  ground  move  beneath  us,  a  mysterious  force, 
with  which  we  were  previously  unacquainted,  is  revealed 
to  us  as  an  active  disturber  of  stability.  A  moment  de- 
stroys the  illusion  of  a  whole  life ;  our  deceptive  faith  in  the 
repose  of  nature  vanishes  ;  and  we  feel  transported  into  a 
realm  of  unkrown  destructive  forces  Every  sound  —  the 
faintesi  motion  of  the  air  —  arrests  our  attention,  and  we  no 
longer  trust  the  ground  on  which  we  stand.    There  is  an 


310  BEARING    OF    FINAL    CAUSES 

idea  conveyed  to  the  mmd,  of  some  universal  and  unlimited 
danger.  We  may  flee  from  the  crater  of  a  volcano  in  active 
eruption,  or  from  the  dwelling  whose  destruction  is  threat- 
ened by  the  approach  of  the  lava  stream  ;  but  in  an  earth- 
quake, direct  our  flight  whithersoever  we  will,  we  still  feel 
a?  if  we  trod  upon  the  very  focus  of  destruction."  Not  less 
striking  is  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Tschudi,  in  his  "  Travels  in 
Peru,"  regarding  this  singular  effect  of  earthquakes  on  the 
human  mind.  "  No  familiarity  with  the  phenomenon  can," 
he  remarks,  "  blunt  the  feeling.  The  inhabitant  of  Lima,  who 
from  childhood  has  frequenfly  witnessed  these  convulsions 
of  nature,  is  roused  from  his  sleep  by  the  shock,  and  rushes 
from  his  apartment  with  the  cry  of  *■  Misericord ia  !  '  The 
foreigner  from  the  north  of  Europe,  who  knows  nothing  of 
earthquakes  but  by  description,  waits  with  impatience  to  feel 
the  movements  of  the  earth,  and  longs  to  hear  with  his  own 
ear  the  subterranean  sounds,  which  he  has  hitherto  con- 
sidered fabulous.  With  levity  he  treats  the  apprehen- 
sion of  a  coming  convulsion,  and  laughs  at  the  fears  of  the 
natives  ;  but  as  soon  as  his  wish  is  gratified,  he  is  terror- 
stricken,  and  is  involuntarily  prompted  to  seek  safety  in 
flight." 

Now,  a  partially  consolidated  planet,  tempested  by  fre- 
quent earthquakes  of  such  terrible  potency,  that  those  of  the 
historic  ages  would  be  but  mere  ripples  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face in  comparison,  could  be  no  proper  home  for  a  creature 
so  constituted.  The  fish  or  reptile,  —  animals  of  a  limited 
range  of  instinct,  exceedingly  tenacious  of  life  in  most  of  their 
varieties,  oviparous,  prolific,  and  whose  young  immediately 
on  their  jscape  from  the  egg  can  provide  for  themselves, 
might  enjoy  existence  in  such  circumstances,  to  the  full  ex- 
lent  of  their  narrow*'  capacities  ;  and  when  sudden  death  felJ 


ON   GEOLOGIC   HISTORY.  311 

upon  them,  —  though  theii*  remains,  scattered  over  wide  areas, 
continue  to  exhibit  that  distortion  of  posture  incident  to  vio- 
lent dissohuion,  which  seems  to  speak  of  terror  and  suffering, 
•—we  may  safely  conclude  there  was  but  little  real  suffering 
in  the  case  :  they  were  happy  up  to  a  certain  point,  and  un- 
conscious forever  after.  Fishes  and  reptiles  were  the  proper 
inhabitants  of  our  planet  during  the  ages  of  the  earth-tern- 
pests ;  and  when,  under  the  operation  of  the  chemical  Jaws, 
these  had  bncome  less  frequent  and  terrible,  the  higher 
mammals  were  introduced.  That  prolonged  ages  of  these 
tempests  did  exist,  and  that  they  gradually  settled  down,  un- 
til the  state  of  things  became  at  length  comparatively  fixed 
and  stable,  few  geologists  will  be  disposed  to  deny.  The  evi- 
dence which  supports  this  special  theory  of  the  development 
of  our  planet  in  its  capabilities  as  a  scene  of  organized  and 
sentient  being,  seems  palpable  at  every  step.  Look  first  a 
these  Grauwacke  rocks  ;  and,  after  marking  how  in  one  place 
the  strata  have  been  upturned  on  their  edges  for  miles  together, 
and  how  in  another  the  Plutonic  rock  has  risen  molten 
from  below,  pass  on  to  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  and  examine  ita 
significant  platforms  of  violent  death,  —  its  faults,  displace- 
ments, and  dislocations  ;  see,  next,  in  the  Coal  Measures,  those 
evidences  of  sinking  and  ever-sinking  strata,  for  thousands  of 
feet  together;  mark  in  the  Oolite  those  vast  overlying  masses 
of  trap,  stretching  athwart  the  landscape,  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach ;  observe  carefully  how  the  signs  of  convulsion  and 
catastrophe  gradualfy  lessen  as  we  descend  to  the  times  of 
the  Tertiary,  though  even  in  these  ages  of  the  mammiferoua 
quadruped  the  earth  must  have  had  its  oft-recurring  ague 
fits  of  frightful  intensity  ;  and  then,  on  closing  the  survey, 
consider  how  exceedingly  partial  and  unfrequent  these  earth- 
tempests  have  become  in  the  recent  periods.     Yes ;  we  find 


312  BEARING  OF  FINAL  CAUSES 

every  where  marks  of  at  once  progression  and  identity,  —  of 
progress  made,  and  yet  identity  maintained  ;  but  it  is  ir 
the  habitation  that  we  find  them,  —  not  in  the  inhabitants. 
There  is  a  tract  of  country  in  Hindustan  that  contains 
nearly  as  many  square  miles  as  all  Great  Britain,  cov- 
ered to  the  depth  of  hundreds  of  feet  by  one  vast  overflow 
of  trap  ;  a  track  similarly  overflown,  which  exceeds  in  area 
all  England,  occurs  in  Southern  Africa.  The  earth's  sur- 
face is  roughened  with  such,  —  mottled  as  thickly  by  the 
Plutonic  masses  as  the  skin  of  the  leopard  by  its  spots.  The 
trap  district  which  surrounds  our  Scottish  metropolis,  and 
imparts  so  imposing  a  character  to  its  scenery,  is  too  inconsid- 
erable to  be  marked  on  geological  maps  of  the  world,  that  we 
yet  see  streaked  and  speckled  with  similar  memorials,  though 
on  an  immensely  vaster  scale,  of  the  eruption  and  overflow 
which  took  place  in  the  earthquake  ages.  What  could  man 
have  done  on  the  globe  at  a  time  when  such  outbursts  were 
comparatively  common  occurrences  ?  What  could  he  have 
done  where  Edinburgh  now  stands  during  that  overflow  of  trap 
porphyry  of  which  the  Pentland  range  forms  but  a  fragment, 
or  that  outburst  of  greenstone  of  which  but  a  portion  remains 
in  the  dark  ponderous  coping  of  Salisbury  Craigs,  or  when  the 
thick  floor  of  rock  on  which  the  city  stands  was  broken  up, 
like  the  ice  of  an  arctic  sea  during  a  tempest  in  spring,  and  laid 
on  edge  from  where  it  leans  against  the  Castle  Hill  to  beyond 
the  quarries  at  Joppa  :  The  reasoning  brain  would  have  been 
wholly  at  fault  in  a  scene  of  things  in  which  it  could  neither 
foresee  the  exterminating  calamity  while  yet  distant,  nor  con- 
trol it  when  it  had  come  ;  and  so  the  reasoning  brain  was  not 
produced  until  the  scene  had  undergone  a  slow  but  thorough 
process  of  change,  during  which,  at  each  progressive  stage,  it 
had   furnished   a   platform    for  higher  and   still   higher  life. 


ON    GEOLOGIC   H.  STORY.  313 

When  the  coniferse  could  flourish  on  the  land,  and  fishes 
subsis'  in  the  seas,  fishes  and  cone-bearing  plants  were  cre- 
ated ;  when  the  earth  became  a  fit  habitat  fiar  reptiles  and 
birds,  rept'les  and  birds  were  produced;  with  the  dawn  of  a 
more  stable  and  mature  state  of  things  the  sagacious  quad- 
ruped was  ushered  in ;  and,  last  of  all,  when  man's  house 
was  fully  prepared  for  him,  —  when  the  data  on  which  it  is 
his  nature  to  reason  and  calculate  had  become  fixed  and 
certain,  —  the  reasoning,  calculating  brain  was  moulded  by 
the  creative  finger,  and  man  became  a  living  soul.  Such 
seems  to  be  the  true  reading  of  the  wondrous  inscription 
chiselled  deep  in  the  rocks.  It  furnishes  us  with  no  clue 
by  which  to  unravel  the  unapproachable  mysteries  of  cre- 
ation ;  —  these  mysteries  belong  to  the  wondrous  Creator, 
and  to  Him  only.  We  attempt  to  theorize  upon  them,  and 
to  reduce  them  to  law,  and  all  nature  rises  up  against  us 
m  our  presumptuous  rebellion.  A  stray  splinter  of  cone- 
bearing  wood,  —  a  fish's  skull  or  tooth,  —  the  vertebra  of  a 
reptile,  —  the  humerus  of  a  bird, —  the  jaw  of  a  quadruped, 
—  all,  any  of  these  things,  weak  and  insignificant  as  they 
may  seem,  become  In  such  a  quarrel  too  strong  for  us  and  our 
theory  :  the  puny  fragment,  in  the  grasp  of  truth,  forms  as 
irresistible  a  weapon  as  the  dry  bone  did  in  that  of  Samson 
of  old  ;  and  our  slaughtered  sophisms  lie  piled  up,  "  heaps 
upon  heaps,"  before  it. 

There  is  no  geological  fact  nor  revealed  doctrine  with 
which  this  special  scheme  of  development  does  not  agree.  To 
every  truth,  too,  really  such,  from  which  the  antagonist 
scheme  derives  its  shadowy  analogies,  it  leaves  its  full  value. 
It  has  no  quarrel  with  the  facts  of  even  the  "  Vestiges,"  in 
their  character  as  realities.  There  is  certainly  something  very 
extraordinary  in  that  foetal  progress  of  the  human  brain  on 
27 


314  BEARING    OF    FINAL    CAUSES 

which  the  assertors  of  the  development  hypothesis  have  foundt  ti 
so  much.  Nature,  in  constructing  this  curious  organ,  first  lays 
down  a  grooved  cord,  as  the  carpenter  lays  down  the  keel  of 
his  vessel ;  and  on  this  narrow  base  the  perfect  brain,  as 
month  after  month  passes  by,  is  gradually  built  up,  like  the 
vessel  from  the  keel.  First  it  grows  up  into  a  brain  closely 
resembling  that  of  a  fish  ;  a  few  additions  more  convert  it 
into  a  brain  undistinguishable  from  that  of  a  reptile  ;  a  few 
additions  more  impart  to  it  the  perfect  appearance  of  the 
brain  of  a  bird  ;  it  then  developes  into  a  brain  exceedingly 
like  thrit  of  a  mammiferous  quadruped;  and,  finally,  expand- 
ing atop,  and  spreading  out  its  deeply  corrugated  lobes,  till 
they  project  widely  over  the  base,  it  assumes  its  unique  char- 
acter as  a  human  brain.  Radically  such  from  the  first,  it 
passes  towards  its  full  development,  through  all  the  inferioi" 
forms,  from  that  of  the  fish  upwards,  —  thus  comprising,  dur- 
ing its  foetal  progress,  an  epitome  of  geologic  history,  as  if 
each  man  were  in  himself,  not  the  microcosm  of  the  old  fan- 
ciful philosopher,  but  something  greatly  more  wonderful,  — 
a  compendium  of  all  animated  nature,  and  of  kin  to  every 
creature  that  lives.  Hence  the  remark,  that  man  is  the 
sum  total  of  all  animals,  —  "the  animal  equivalent,"  says 
Oken,  "  to  the  whole  animal  kingdom."  We  are  perhaps  too 
much  in  the  habit  of  setting  aside  real  facts,  when  they  have 
been  first  seized  upon  by  the  infidel,  and  appropriated  to  the 
purposes  of  unbelief,  as  if  they  had  suflTered  contamination  in 
his  hands.  We  forget,  like  the  brother  "  weak  in  the  faith," 
instanced  by  the  Apostle,  that  they  are  in  themselves  "  crea- 
tures of  God  ;  "  and  too  readily  reject  the  lesson  which  they 
teach,  simply  because  they  have  been  offered  in  sacrifice  to 
an  idol.  And  this  strange  fact  of  the  progress  of  the  human 
brain  is  assuredly  a  fact  none  the  less  worth  looking  at  from  the 


0^    GEOLOGIC    HISTORY.  3Ib 

circumstance  tha  infidelity  has  looked  at  it  first.  On  no  princi 
pie  recognizable  n  right  reason  can  it  be  urged  in  support  of 
the  development  hypothesis;  —  it  is  a  fact  of  foetal  develop- 
ment, and  of  that  only.  But  it  would  be  well  should  it  lead 
our  metaphysicians  to  inquire  whether  they  have  not  been 
rendering  their  science  too  insulated  and  exclusive ;  and 
whether  the  mind  that  works  by  a  brain  thus  "  fearfully  and 
wonderfully  made,"  ought  not  to  be  viewed  rather  in  connec- 
tion with  all  animated  nature,  especially  as  we  find  nature 
exemplified  in  the  various  vertebral  forms,  than  as  a  thing 
fundamentally  abstract  and  distinct.  The  brain  built  up  oi 
all  the  types  of  brain,  may  be  the  organ  of  a  mind  com- 
pounded, if  I  may  so  express  myself,  of  all  the  varieties  of 
mind.  It  would  be  perhaps  over  fanciful  to  urge  that  it  is  the 
creature  who  has  made  himself  free  of  all  the  elements, 
whose  brain  has  been  thus  in  succession  that  of  all  their  proper 
denizens ;  and  that  there  is  no  animal  instinct,  the  function  of 
which  cannot  be  illustrated  by  some  art  mastered  by  man  :  but 
there  can  be  nothing  over  fanciful  in  the  suggestion,  founded 
on  this  fact  of  foetal  development,  that  possibly  some  of  the 
more  obscure  signs  impressed  upon  the  human  character  may 
be  best  read  through  the  spectacles  of  physical  science.  The 
successive  phases  of  the  foetal  brain  give  at  least  fair  warning 
that,  in  tracing  to  its  first  principles  the  moral  and  intellectual 
nature  of  man,  what  is  properly  his  "  natural  history " 
should  not  be  overlooked.  Oken,  after  describing  the  human 
creature  in  one  passage  as  "  equivalent  to  the  whole  animal 
kingdom,"  designates  him  in  another  as  "  God  wholly  mani- 
fested," and  as  "  God  become  man  ;  "  —  a  style  of  expression 
at  which  the  English  reader  may  start,  as  that  of  the  "  big 
mouth  speaking  blasphemy,"  but  which  has  become  exceed- 
ingly common  among  the  .  itionalists  of  the  Continent.     The 


316  BEARING  OF  FINAL  CAUSES 

irreverent  naturalist  ought  surely  to  have  remennbered,  that 
the  sum  total  of  all  the  animals  cannot  be  different  in  its 
nature  from  the  various  sums  of  which  it  is  an  aggregate, 
—  seeing  that  no  summation  ever  differs  in  quality  from 
the  items  summed  up,  which  compose  it,  —  and  that,  though 
it  may  amount  in  this  case  to  man  the  animal^  —  to  man,  as 
he  may  be  weighed,  and  measured,  and  subjected  to  the 
dissecting  knife, —  it  cannot  possibly  amount  to  God.  Is  God 
merely  a  sum  total  of  birds  and  beasts,  reptiles  and  fishes  ;  — 
a  mere  Egyptian  deity,  composed  of  fantastic  hieroglyphics 
derived  from  the  forms  of  the  brute  creation  ?  The  impieties 
of  the  transcendentalist  may,  however,  serve  to  illustrate  that 
mode  of  seizing  on  terms  which,  as  the  most  sacred  in  the 
message  of  revelation,  have  been  long  coupled  in  the  popular 
mind  with  saving  truths,  and  forcibly  compelling  them  to  bear 
some  visionary  and  illusive  meaning,  wholly  foreign  to  that 
with  which  they  were  originally  invested,  which  has  become 
so  remarkable  a  part  of  the  policy  of  modern  infidelity.  Ra- 
tionalism has  learned  to  sacrifice  to  Deity  with  a  certain 
measure  of  conformity  to  the  required  pattern  ;  but  it  is  a 
conformity  in  appearance  only,  not  in  reality :  the  sacri- 
fice always  resembles  that  of  Prometheus  of  old,  who  pre- 
sented to  Jupiter  what,  though  it  seemed  to  be  an  ox  with- 
out blemish,  was  merely  an  ox-skin  stuffed  full  of  bones  and 
garbage. 

There  is  another  very  remarkable  class  of  facts  in  geologi3al 
history,  which  appear  to  fall  as  legitimately  within  the  scope  cif 
argument  founded  on  final  causes,  as  those  which  bear  on  the 
appearance  of  man  at  his  proper  era.  The  period  of  the 
mammiferous  quadrupeds  seems,  likr  the  succeeding  human 
period,  to  have  been  determined,  as  1  have  said,  by  the  earth's 
fitnsss  at  the  time  as  3,  place  of  habitation  for  creatures  so 


ON    GEOLOGIC    HISTORY.  317 

formed.  And  the  bulk  to  which,  in  the  more  extreme  cases, 
they  attained,  appears  to  have  been  regulated,  as  in  the  high- 
er mammals  now,  with  reference  to  the  force  of  gravity  at 
the  earth's  surface.  The  Megatherium  and  the  Mastodon,  the 
Dinotherium  and  the  extinct  elephant,  increased  in  bulk,  in 
obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  specific  constitution  imparted  to 
them  at  their  creation  ;  and  these  laws  bore  reference,  in  turn, 
to  another  law,  —  that  law  of  gravity  which  determines  that  no 
creature  which  moves  in  air  and  treads  the  surface  of  the 
earth  should  exceed  a  certain  weight  or  size.  To  very  neai 
the  limits  assigned  by  this  law  some  of  the  ancient  quadru- 
peds arose.  It  is  even  doubtful  whether  the  Dinotherium,  the 
most  gigantic  of  mammals,  may  not  have  been,  like  the  exist- 
ing sea-lions  and  morses,  mainly  an  aquatic  quadruped;  — 
an  inference  grounded  on  the  circumstance  that,  in  at  least 
portions  of  its  framework,  it  seems  to  have  risen  beyond  these 
limits.  Now,  it  does  not  seem  wonderful  that,  with  apparent 
reference  to  the  point  at  which  the  gravity  of  bodies  at  the 
earth's  surface  bisects  the  conditions  of  texture  and  mat- 
ter necessary  to  existence  among  the  sub-aerial  vertebrata,  the 
reptiles  of  the  Secondary  periods  should  have  grown  up  in 
some  of  their  species  and  genera  to  the  extreme  size.  A 
world  of  frogs,  newts,  and  lizards  would  have  borne  stamped 
upon  it  the  impress  of  a  tame  and  miserable  mediocrity,  that 
would  have  harmonized  ill  with  the  extent  of  the  earth's 
capabilities  for  s:ipporting  life  on  a  large  scale.  There 
would  be  no  principle  of  adaptation  or  rule  of  propcrtion 
maintained  between  an  animal  kingdom  composed  of  so 
contemptible  a  group  of  beings,  and  either  the  dynamic  laws 
under  wliich  matter  exists  on  our  planet,  or  the  luxuriant  vege- 
tation which  it  bore  during  the  Secondary  ages.  And  such 
was  not  the  character  of  th  group  which  composed  the 
27* 


318  BEARING  OF  FINAL  CAUSES 

reptile  dynasty.  The  Iguanodon  must  have  been  quite 
as  tall  as  the  elephant,  —  greatly  longer,  and,  it  wouli 
seem,  at  least  as  bulky.  The  Megalosaurus  must  have  at 
least  equalled  the  rhinoceros  ;  the  Hylaeosaurus  would  have 
outweighed  the  hippopotamus.  And  when  reptiles  that  rivalled 
in  size  our  hugest  mammals  inhabited  the  land,  other  reptiles, 

—  Ichthyosaurs,  Plesiosaurs,  and  Cetiosaurs,  —  scarce  less 
bulky  than  the  cetacea  themselves,  possessed  the  sea.  Not 
only  was  the  platform  of  being  occupied  in  all  its  breadth,  but 
also  in  all  its  height  ;  and  it  is  according  to  our  simpler  and 
more  obvious  ideas  of  adaptation  —  simple  and  obvious  be- 
cause gleaned  from  the  very  surface  of  the  universe  of  life 

—  that  such  should  have  been  the  case.  But  it  does  appear 
strange,  because  under  the  regulation,  it  would  seem,  of  a 
principle  of  adaptation  more  occult,  and,  if  I  may  so  speak, 
more  Providential,  \}^dX  no  sooner  are  the  huge  mammals  in- 
troduced as  a  group,  than,  with  but  a  few  exceptions,  the  rep- 
tiles appear  in  greatly  diminished  proportions.  They  no  long- 
er occupy  the  platform  to  its  full  extent  of  height.  Even  in 
tropical  countries,  in  which  certain  families  of  mammals  still 
attain  to  the  maximum  size,  the  reptiles,  if  we  except  the  croco- 
dilean  family,  a  few  harmless  turtles,  and  the  degraded  boas 
and  pythons,  are  a  small  and  comparatively  unimportant  race. 
Nay,  the  existing  giants  of  the  class  —  the  crocodiles  and 
boas — hardly  equal  in  bulk  the  third-rate  reptiles  of  the  ages 
of  the  Oolite  and  the  Wealden.  So  far  as  can  be  seen,  there 
is  no  reason  deduceable  from  the  nature  of  things,  why  the 
country  that  sustains  a  mammal  bulky  as  the  elephant, 
should  not  also  support  a  reptile  huge  as  the  Iguanodon ;  or 
why  the  Megalosaurus,  Hylaeosaurus,  and  Dicynodon,  mighl 
not  have  been  contemporary  with  the  lion,  tiger,  and  rhinoce 
ros.     The  change  which  took  place  in  the  reptile  group  im- 


ON    GEOLOGIC    BISTORT.  319 

mediately  on  their  dethronement  at  the  close  of  the  Second- 
ary period,  seems  scarce  less  strange  than  that  sung  by  Mil- 
ton :  — 

'•Behold  a  -wonder  !     They  but  no-w  -who  seemed 
In  bigness  to  surpass  earth's  giant  sons, 
Now  less  than  smallest  dwarfs,  in  narrow  room 
Thronged  numberless  ;  like  that  pygmean  race 
Bey  md  the  Indian  mount ;  or  fairy  elves, 
"Whose  midnight  revels,  by  a  forest  side 
Or  fountain,  some  belated  peasant  sees. 
Or  dreams  he  sees,  while,  overhead,  the  moon 
Sits  arbitress,  and  nearer  to  the  earth 
"Wheels  her  pale  course." 

But  though  we  cannot  assign  a  cause  for  this  general  re- 
duction of  the  reptile  class,  save  simply  the  will  of  the  all- 
wise  Creator,  the  reason  why  it  should  have  taken  place 
seems  easily  assignable.  It  was  a  bold  saying  of  the  old 
philosophic  heathen,  that  "God  is  the  soul  of  brutes  ; "  but 
writers  on  instinct  in  even  our  own  times  have  said  less 
warrantable  things.  God  does  seem  to  do  for  many  of  the 
inferior  animals  of  the  lower  divisions,  which,  though  devoid 
of  brain  and  vertebral  column,  are  yet  skilful  chemists  and 
accomplished  architects  and  mathematicians,  what  he  en- 
ables man,  through  the  exercise  of  the  reasoning  faculty,  to 
do  for  himself;  and  the  ancient  philosopher  meant  no  more. 
And  in  clearing  away  the  giants  of  the  reptile  dynasty,  when 
their  kingdom  had  passed  away,  and  then  re-introducing  the 
class  as  much  shrunken  in  their  proportions  as  restricted  in 
their  domains,  the  Creator  seems  to  have  been  doing  for  the 
mammals  what  man,  in  the  character  of  a  "  mighty  hunter 
before  the  Lord,"  does  for  himself.  There  is  in  nature  very 
little  of  what  can  be  called  war.  The  cities  of  this  country 
cannot  be  said  to  be  in  a  state  of  war.  th:iigh  their  cattle- 


S20  BEAKING    OF    FINAL    CAUSES 

markets  are  thronged  every  week  with  animals  for  slaughtei 
and  the  butcher  and  fishmonger  find  their  places  of  business 
thronged  with  customers.  And  such,  in  the  main,  is  the  con- 
dition of  the  animal  world  ;  —  it  consists  of  its  two  classes, — 
animals  of  prey,  and  the  animals  upon  which  they  prey:  its 
wars  are  simply  those  of  the  butcher  and  fisher,  lightened  by 
a  dash  of  the  enjoyments  of  the  sportsman. 

"  The  creatures  see  of  flood  and  field, 
And  those  that  travel  on  the  wind, 
"With  them  no  strife  can  last ;  they  live 
In  peace  and  peace  of  mind." 

Generally  speaking,  the  carnivorous  mammalia  respect  one 
another :  lion  does  not  war  with  tiger,  nor  the  leopard  con- 
tend with  the  hyena.  But  the  carnivorous  reptiles  manifest 
no  such  respect  for  the  carnivorous  mammals.  There  are 
fierce  contests  in  their  native  jungles,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ganges,  between  the  gavial  and  the  tiger ;  and  in  the  steam 
jng  forests  of  South  America,  the  boa-constrictor  casts  his 
terrible  coil  scarce  less  readily  round  the  puma  than  the  an- 
telope. A  world  which,  after  it  had  become  a  home  of  the 
higher  herbivorous  and  more  powerful  carnivorous  mammals, 
continued  to  retain  the  gigantic  reptiles  of  its  earlier  ages, 
would  be  a  world  of  horrid,  exterminating  war,  and  alto- 
gether rather  a  place  of  torment  than  a  scene  of  interme- 
diate character,  in  which,  though  it  sometimes  reechoes  the 
groans  of  suffering  nature,  life  is,  in  the  main,  enjoyment. 
And  so,  —  save  in  a  few  exceptional  cases,  that,  while  they 
establish  the  rule  as  a  fact,  serve  also  as  a  key  to  unlock 
that  principle  of  the  Divine  government  on  which  it  ap- 
pears to  rest,  —  no  sooner  was  the  reptile  removed  from  his 
place  in  the  fore-front  of  creation,  and  creatures  of  a  higher 
order   introduced   into    t\  s    consolidating  and    fast-ripening 


ON    GEOLOGIC    HISTORY.  331 

planet  of  which  he  had  been  so  long  the  monarch,  than  his 
bulk  shrank  and  his  strength  lessened,  and  he  assumed  a  hu- 
mility of  form  and  aspect  at  once  in  keeping  with  his  reduced 
circumstances,  and  compatible  with  the  general  welfare.  But 
though  the  reason  of  the  reduction  appears  obvious,  I  know 
not  that  it  can  be  referred  to  any  other  cause  than  simply  the 
will  of  the  All- Wise  Creator. 

There  hangs  a  mystery  greatly  more  profound  over  the 
fact  of  the  degradation  than  over  that  of  the  reduction  and 
diminution  of  classes.  We  can  assign  what  at  least  seems 
to  be  a  sufficient  reason  why,  when  reptiles  formed  as  a  class 
the  highest  representatives  of  the  veriebrata,  they  should  be 
of  imposing  bulk  and  strength,  and  altogether  worthy  of  that 
post  of  precedence  which  they  then  occupied  among  the  ani- 
mals. We  can  also  assign  a  reason  for  the  strange  reduction 
which  took  place  among  them  in  strength  and  bulk  imme- 
diately on  their  removal  from  the  first  to  the  second  place. 
But  why  not  only  reduction,  but  also  degradation  7  Why,  as 
division  started  up  in  advance  of  division,  —  first  the  reptiles 
in  front  of  the  fishes,  then  the  quadrupedal  mammals  in  front 
of  the  reptiles,  and,  last  of  all,  man  in  front  of  the  quadru- 
pedal mammals,  —  should  the  supplanted  classes,  —  two  of 
them  at  least,  —  fishes  and  reptiles,  —  for  there  seem  to  have 
been  no  additions  made  to  the  mammals  since  man  entered  upon 
the  scene,  —  why  should  they  have  become  the  receptacles  of 
orders  and  families  of  a  degraded  character,  which  had  no  place 
among  them  in  their  monarchical  state  }  The  fishes  removed 
beyond  all  analogy  with  the  higher  vertebrata,  by  their  homo- 
cereal  tails, — the  fishes  (Acanthopterygii  and  Suh-brachiati) 
whh  their  four  limbs  slung  in  a  belt  round  their  necks,  —  the 
flat  fishes,  (Pleuronectidce,)  that,  in  addition  to  this  deformity, 
are  so  twisted  to  a  side,  that  whiie  the  one  eye  occupies  a  single 


322  BEARING    OF    FINAL    CAUSES 

orbit  in  the  middle  of  the  skull,  the  other  is  thrust  out  to  its 
edge,  —  the  irregular  fishes  generally  (sun-fishes,  frog-fishes, 
nippocanrun,  &c.)  were  not  introduced  into  the  ichthyic  di- 
I'ision  untt  after  the  full  development  of  the  reptile  dynasty  ; 
iior  did  the  hand  that  makes  no  slips  in  its  working  "  form 
'Jie  crooked  serpent,"  footless,  grovelling,  venom-bearing, — 
ihe  authorized  type  of  a  fallen  and  degraded  creature,  — 
until  after  the  introduction  of  the  mammals.  What  can 
this  fact  of  degradation  mean  ?  Species  and  genera  seem  to 
be  greatly  more  numerous  in  the  present  age  of  the  world 
than  in  any  of  the  geologic  ages.  Is  it  not  possible  that  the 
extension  of  the  chain  of  being  which  has  thus  taken  place  — 
not  only,  as  we  find,  through  the  addition  of  the  higher  divis- 
ions of  animals  to  its  upper  end,  but  also  through  the  interpo- 
lations of  fotoer  ZinArs  into  the  previously  existing  divisions  — 
may  have  borne  reference  to  some  predetermined  scheme  of 
well-proportioned  gradation,  or,  according  to  the  poet, 

"  Of  general  Order  since  the  whole  began  ? " 

May  not,  in  short,  what  we  term  degradation  be  merely  one 
of  the  modes  resorted  to  for  filling  up  the  voids  in  creation, 
and  thereby  perfecting  a  scale  which  must  have  been  origi- 
nally not  merely  a  scale  of  narrow  compass,  but  also  of  innu- 
merable breaks  and  blanks,  hiatuses  and  chasms  ?  Such, 
certainly,  would  be  the  reading  of  the  enigma  which  a  Soame 
Jenyns  or  a  Bolingbroke  would  suggest ;  but  the  geologist  has 
learned  from  his  science,  that  the  completion  of  a  chain  of  at 
least  contemporary  being,  perfect  in  its  gradations,  cannot 
possibly  have  formed  the  design  of  Providence.  Almost  ever 
since  God  united  vitality  to  matter,  the  links  in  this  chain  of 
inimated  rature,  as  if  composed  of  a  material  too  brittle  to 
near  thei?   own  weight  when  stretched  across  the  geologic 


ON    GEOLOGIC    HISTORY.  323 

ages,  Lave  l>oen  Jiopping  one  after  one  fom  his  hand,  and 
sinking,  fractured  and  broken,  into  the  rocks  below.  L  .s 
urged  by  Pope,  that  were  "  we  to  press  on  superior  powers," 
and  rise  from  our  own  assigned  place  to  the  place  immediately 
abovo  It,  we  would,  in  consequence  of  the  transposition, 

"  In  the  full  creation  leave  a  void, 
"WTiere,  one  step  broken,  the  great  scale  's  destroyed. 
From  nature's  chain  whatever  link  we  strike. 
Tenth  or  ten  thousandth,  breaks  the  chain  alike.'' 

The  poet  could  scarce  have  anticipated  that  there  was  a  sci- 
ence then  sleeping  in  its  cradle,  and  dreaming  the  dreams  of 
Whiston,  Leibnitz,  and  Burnet,  which  was  one  day  to  rise  and 
demonstrate  that  both  the  tenth  and  the  ten  thousandth  link 
in  the  chain  had  been  already  broken  and  laid  by,  with  all 
the  thousands  of  links  between  ;  and  that  man  might  lauda- 
bly "  press  on  superior  powers,"  and  attain  to  a  "  new  na- 
ture," without  in  the  least  affecting  the  symmetry  of  creation 
by  the  void  which  his  elevation  would  necessarily  create ; 
that,  in  fine,  voids  and  blanks  in  the  scale  are  exceedingly 
common  things ;  and  that,  if  men  could,  by  rising  into  an- 
gels, make  one  blank  more,  they  might  do  so  with  perfect 
impunity.  Further,  even  were  the  graduated  chain  of  Boling- 
broke  a  reality,  and  not  what  Johnson  well  designates  it,  an 
"  absurd  hypothesis,"  and  were  what  I  have  termed  the  inter- 
polation of  links  necessary  to  its  completion,  the  mere  filling 
'up  of  the  original  blanks  and  chasms  would  not  necessarily 
involve  the  fact  of  degradation,  seeing  that  each  blank  could 
be  filled  up,  if  I  may  so  expre&s  myself,  from  its  lower  end. 
Each  could  be  as  certainly  occupied  to  the  full  by  an  eleva- 
tion of  lower  forms,  as  by  a  humiliation  of  the  higher.  We 
might    receive    the    hypothesis    of    Bolingbroke,   and   yet 


324  BEARING  OF  FINAL  CAUSES 

find  the  mysterious  fact  of  degradation  remain  an  unsolved 
riddle  in  our  hands. 

But  though  I  can  assign  neither  reason  nor  cause  for  the 
fact,  I  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion,  that  it  is  associated  with 
certain  other  great  facts  in  the  moral  government  of  the  uni- 
verse, by  those  threads  of  analogical  connection  which  run 
through  the  entire  tissue  of  Creation  and  Providence,  and 
impart  to  it  that  character  of  unity  which  speaks  of  the  single 
producing  Mind.  The  first  idea  of  every  religion  on  earth 
which  has  arisen  out  of  what  may  be  termed  the  spiritual  in- 
stincts of  man's  nature,  is  that  of  a  Future  State  ;  the  second 
idea  is,  that  in  this  state  men  shall  exist  in  two  separate  classes, 
—  the  one  in  advance  of  their  present  condition,  the  other  far 
in  the  rear  of  it.  It  is  on  these  two  great  beliefs  that  con- 
science every  where  finds  the  fulcrum  from  which  it  acts  upon 
the  conduct ;  and  it  is,  we  find,  wholly  inoperative  as  a  force 
without  them.  And  in  that  one  religion  among  men  that, 
instead  of  retiring,  like  the  pale  ghosts  of  the  others,  before 
the  light  of  civilization,  brightens  and  expands  in  its  beams, 
and  in  favor  of  whose  claim  as  a  revelation  from  God  the 
highest  philosophy  has  declared,  we  find  these  two  master 
ideas  occupying  a  still  more  prominent  place  than  in  any  of 
those  merely  indigenous  religions  that  spring  up  in  the  human 
mind  of  themselves.  The  special  lesson  which  the  Adorable 
Saviour,  during  his  ministry  on  earth,  oftenest  enforced,  and 
to  which  all  the  others  bore  reference,  was  the  lesson  of  a 
final  separation  of  mankind  into  two  great  divisions,  —  a  divis- 
ion of  God-like  men,  of  whose  high  standing  and  full-orbed 
happiness  man,  in  the  present  scene  of  things,  can  form  no 
adequate  conception ;  and  a  division  of  men  finally  lost,  and 
doomed    to    unutterable   misery   and    hopeless   degradation. 


ON    GEOLOGIC    HISTORY.  325 

There  is  not  in  all  Revelation  a  single  doctrine  which  we 
find  oftener  or  more  clearly  enforced  than  that  there  shall 
continue  to  exist,  throughout  the  endless  cycles  of  the  future, 
a  race  of  degraded  men  and  of  degraded  angels. 

Now,  it  is  truly  wonderful  how  thoroughly,  in  its  general 
scope,  the  revealed  pieces  on  to  the  geologic  record.  We 
know,  as  geologists,  that  the  dynasty  of  the  fish  was  suc- 
ceeded by  that  of  the  reptile,  —  that  the  dynasty  of  the  rep- 
tile was  succeeded  by  that  of  the  mammiferous  quadruped, — 
and  that  the  dynasty  of  the  mammiferous  quadruped  was  suc- 
ceeded by  that  of  man  as  man  now  exists,  —  a  creature  of 
mixed  character,  and  subject,  in  all  conditions,  to  wide  alter- 
nations of  enjoyment  and  suffering.  We  know,  further, — 
so  far  at  least  as  we  have  yet  succeeded  in  deciphering  the 
record,  —  that  the  several  dynasties  were  introduced,  not  in 
their  lower,  but  in  their  higher  forms ;  —  that,  in  short,  in  the 
imposing  programme  of  creation  it  was  arranged,  as  a  general 
rule,  that  in  each  of  the  great  divisions  of  the  procession  the 
magnates  should  walk  first.  We  recognize  yet  further  the  fact 
of  degradation  specially  exemplified  in  the  fish  and  the  reptile. 
And  then,  passing  on  to  the  revealed  record,  we  learn  that  the 
dynasty  of  man  in  the  mixed  state  and  character  is  not  the 
final  one,  but  that  there  is  to  be  yet  another  creation,  or,  more 
properly,  re-creation,  known  theologically  as  the  Resurrec- 
tion, which  shall  be  connected  in  its  physical  components,  by 
bonds  of  mysterious  paternity,  with  the  dynasty  which  now 
reigns,  and  be  bound  to  it  mentally  by  the  chain  of  identity, 
conscious  and  actual ;  but  which,  in  all  that  constitutes  supe- 
riority, shall  be  as  vastly  its  superior  as  the  dynasty  of 
responsible  man  is  superior  to  even  the  lowest  of  the  pre- 
liminary dynasties.  We  are  further  taught,  that  at  the  com- 
mencement of  this  last  of  the  dynasties,  there  will  be  a  re 
28 


326  BEARING    OF    FINAL    CAUSES 

creation  of  not  only  elevated,  but  also  of  degraded  beirgs,  — 
a  re-creation  of  the  lost.  We  are  taught  yet  fuither,  that 
though  the  present  dynasty  be  that  of  a  lapsed  race,  which  at 
tlieir  first  introduction  were  placed  on  higher  ground  than 
that  on  which  they  now  stand,  and  sank  by  their  own  act,  it 
was  yet  part  of  the  original  design,  from  the  beginning  of  all 
things,  that  they  should  occupy  the  existing  platform  ;  and 
that  Redemption  is  thus  no  after-thought,  rendered  necessary 
by  the  fall,  but,  on  the  contrary,  part  of  a  general  scheme, 
for  which  provision  had  been  made  from  the  beginning ;  so 
that  the  Divine  Man,  through  whom  the  work  of  restoration 
has  been  effected,  was  in  reality,  in  reference  to  the  purposes 
of  the  Eternal,  what  he  is  designated  in  the  remarkable  text, 
"  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundations  of  the  world."  Slain 
from  the  foundations  of  the  world  !  Could  the  assertors  of  [he 
stony  science  ask  for  language  more  express  ?  By  piecing 
the  two  records  together, —  that  revealed  in  Scripture  and 
that  revealed  in  the  rocks,  —  records  which,  however  widely 
geologists  may  mistake  the  one,  or  commentators  misunder- 
stand the  other,  have  emanated  from  the  same  great  Author 
—  we  learn  that  in  slow  and  solemn  majesty  has  period  sue 
ceeded  period,  each  in  succession  ushering  in  a  higher  and  yei 
higher  scene  of  existence,  —  that  fish,  reptiles,  mammiferous 
quadrupeds,  have  reigned  in  turn,  —  that  responsible  man, 
"  made  in  the  image  of  God,"  and  with  dominion  ever  all 
creatures,  ultimately  entered  into  a  world  ripened  for  his  re- 
ception ;  but,  further,  that  this  passing  scene,  in  which  he  forms 
ths  prominent  figure,  is  not  the  final  one  in  the  long  series,  but 
merely  the  last  of  the  preliminary  scenes  ;  and  that  that  period 
to  which  the  bygone  ages,  incalculable  in  amount,  with  all  their 
well-proportioned  gradations  of  being,  form  the  imposing  vesti- 
bule, shall  have  perfection  for  its  occupant,  and  eternity  for  its 


ON    GEOLOGIC    HISTORY.  327 

duration.  I  know  not  how  it  nnay  appear  to  others  ;  but  for 
my  own  part,  I  cannot  avoid  thinking  that  there  would  be  a 
!ack  of  proportion  in  the  series  of  being,  were  the  period  of 
perfect  and  glorified  humanity  abruptly  connected,  without 
the  introduction  of  an  intermediate  creation  o^  responsible  im- 
perfection, with  that  of  the  dying  irresponsible  brute.  That 
scene  of  things  in  which  God  became  Man,  and  suffered, 
seems,  as  it  no  doubt  is,  a  necessary  link  in  the  chain. 

I  am  aware  that  I  stand  on  the  confines  of  a  mystery 
which  man,  since  the  first  introduction  of  sin  into  the  world 
till  now,  has  "  vainly  aspired  to  comprehend."  But  I  have 
no  new  reading  of  the  enigma  to  offer.  I  know  not  why  it 
is  that  moral  evil  exists  in  the  universe  of  the  All- Wise  and 
the  All-Powerful ;  nor  through  what  occult  law  of  Deity  it 
is  that  "  perfection  should  come  through  suffering."  The 
question,  like  that  satellite,  ever  attendant  upon  our  planet, 
which  presents  both  its  sides  to  the  sun,  but  invariably  the 
same  side  to  the  earth,  hides  one  of  its  faces  from  man,  and 
turns  it  to  but  the  Eye  from  which  all  light  emanates.  And 
it  is  in  that  God-ward  phase  of  the  question  that  the  mys- 
tery dwells.  We  can  map  and  measure  every  protuberance 
and  hollow  which  roughens  the  nether  disk  of  the  moon,  as, 
during  the  shades  of  night,  it  looks  down  upon  our  path  to 
cheer  and  enlighten  ;  but  what  can  we  know  of  the  other  >  It 
would,  however,  seem,  that  even  in  this  field  of  mystery  the 
extent  of  the  inexplicable  and  the  unknown  is  capable  of 
reduction,  and  that  the  human  understanding  is  vested  in  an 
ability  of  progressing  towards  the  central  point  of  that  dark 
field  throughout  all  time,  mayhap  all  eternity,  as  the  asymp- 
tote progresses  upon  its  curve.  Even  though  the  essence 
of  the  question  should  forever  remain  a  mystery,  it  may 
yet,  in  its  reduced  and  defined  state,  s^.rve  as  a  key  for  the 


328  BEARING    OF    FINAL    CAUSES 

laying  of  other  mysteries  open.  The  philosophers  are  still 
as  ignorant  as  ever  respecting  the  intrinsic  nature  of  gravi- 
tation ;  bu:  regarded  simply  as  a  force,  how  many  enigmas 
has  it  not  served  to  unlock !  And  that  moral  gravitation 
towards  evil,  manifested  by  the  only  two  classes  of  respon- 
sible beings  of  which  there  is  aught  known  to  man,  and  of 
which  a  degradation  linked  by  mysterious  analogy  with  a 
class  of  facts  singularly  prominent  in  geologic  history  is  the 
result,  occupies  apparently  a  similar  place,  as  a  force,  in  the 
moral  dynamics  of  the  universe,  and  seems  suited  to  perform 
a  similar  part.  Inexplicable  itself,  it  is  yet  a  key  to  the  so- 
lution of  all  the  minor  inexplicabilities  in  the  scheme  of 
Providence. 

In  a  matter  of  such  extreme  niceness  and  difficulty,  shall  I 
dare  venture  on  an  illustrative  example  ? 

So  far  as  both  the  geologic  and  the  Scriptural  evidence 
extends,  no  species  or  family  of  existences  seems  to  have 
been  introduced  by  creation  into  the  present  scene  of  being 
since  the  appearance  of  man.  In  Scripture  the  formation  of 
the  human  race  is  described  as  the  terminal  act  of  a  series, 
"  good  "  in  all  its  previous  stages,  but  which  became  "  very 
good  "  then  ;  and  geologists,  judging  from  the  modicum  of 
evidence  which  they  have  hitherto  succeeded  in  collecting  on 
the  subject,  —  evidence  still  meagre,  but,  so  far  as  it  goes,  in- 
dependent and  distinct,  —  pronounce  "  post-Adamic  crea- 
tions "  at  least  "  improbable."  The  naturalist  finds  certain 
animal  and  vegetable  species  restricted  to  certain  circles, 
and  that  in  certain  foci  in  these  circles  they  attain  to  their 
fullest  development  and  their  maximum  number.  And  these 
foci  he  regards  as  the  original  centres  of  creation,  whence, 
in  each  instance  in  the  process  of  increase  and  multiplica- 
tion, the  plant  or  creature  propagated  itself  outwards  in  cir« 


ON    GEOLOGIC    HISTORY.  329 

cular  wavelets  of  life,  that  sank  at  each  stage  as  they  widened, 
till  at  length,  at  the  circumference  of  the  area,  they  wholly 
ceased.  Now  we  find  it  argued  by  Professor  Edward  Forbes, 
that  "  since  man's  appearance,  certain  geological  areas,  both 
of  land  and  water,  have  been  formed,  presenting  such  physi- 
cal conditions  as  to  entitle  us  to  expect  within  their  bounds 
one,  or  in  some  instances  more  than  one,  centre  of  creation, 
or  point  of  maximum  of  a  zoological  or  botanical  province. 
But  a  critical  examination  renders  evident,"  the  Professor 
adds,  "  that  instead  of  showing  distinct  foci  of  creation,  they 
have  been  in  all  instances  peopled  by  colonization,  i.  e.  by 
migration  of  species  from  pre-existing,  and  in  every  case  pre- 
Adamic,  provinces.  Among  the  terrestrial  areas  the  British 
isles  may  serve  as  an  example ;  among  marine,  the  BaUic, 
Mediterranean,  and  Black  Seas.  The  British  islands  have 
been  colonized  from  various  centres  of  creation  in  (now) 
continental  Europe  ;  the  Baltic  Sea  from  the  Celtic  region, 
although  it  runs  itself  into  the  conditions  of  the  Boreal  one  ; 
and  the  Mediterranean,  as  it  now  appears,  from  the  fauna  and 
flora  of  the  more  ancient  Lusitanian  province."  Professor 
Forbes,  it  is  stated  further,  in  the  report  of  his  paper  to  which 
I  owe  these  details,  —  a  paper  read  at  the  Koyal  Institution  in 
March  last,  —  "exhibited,  in  support  of  the  same  view,  a 
map,  showing  the  relation  which  the  centres  of  creation  of  the 
air-breathing  molluscs  in  Europe  bear  to  the  geological  his- 
tory of  the  respective  areas,  and  proving  that  the  whole  snail 
population  of  its  nortliern  and  central  extent  (the  portion  of 
the  Continent  of  newest  and  probably  post-Adamic  origin) 
had  been  derived  from  foci  of  creation  seated  in  pre-Adamic 
lands.  And  these  remarkable  facts  have  induced  the  Profes- 
sor," it  was  addec.  "  to  maintain  the  improbability  of  post. 
Adamic  creations  * 

28* 


330  BEARING  OF  FINAL  CAUSES 

With  tfie  introduction  of  man  into  the  scene  of  existence, 
creation,  I  repeat,  seems  to  have  ceased.  What  is  it  that 
now  takes  its  place,  and  performs  its  work  ?  During  the 
previous  dynasties,  all  elevation  in  the  scale  was  an  effec 
simply  of  creation.  Nature  lay  dead  in  a  waste  theatre  of 
rock,  vapor,  and  sea,  in  which  the  insensate  laws,  chemical, 
mechanical,  and  electric,  carried  on  their  blind,  unintelli- 
gent processes:  tne  creative  fiat  went  forth;  and,  amid  waters 
that  straightTvay  teemed  with  life  in  its  lower  forms,  vege- 
table and  animal,  the  dynasty  of  the  fish  was  introduced. 
Many  ages  passed,  during  which  there  took  place  no  further 
elevation  :  on  the  contrary,  in  not  a  few  of  the  newly  intro- 
duced species  of  the  reigning  class  there  occurred  for  the  first 
time  examples  of  an  asymmetrical  misplacement  of  parts, 
and,  in  at  least  one  family  of  fishes,  instances  of  defect  of 
parts :  there  was  the  manifestation  of  a  downward  tendency 
towards  the  degradation  of  monstrosity,  when  the  elevatory 
fiat  again  went  forth,  and,  through  an  act  of  creation^  the 
dynasty  of  the  reptile  began.  Again  many  ages  passed 
by,  marked,  apparently,  by  the  introduction  of  a  warm- 
blooded oviparous  animal,  the  bird,  and  of  a  few  marsupial 
quadrupeds,  but  in  which  the  prevailing  class  reigned  un- 
deposed,  though  at  least  unelevated.  Yet  again,  however, 
the  elevatory  fiat  went  forth,  and  through  an  act  of  creation 
the  dynasty  of  the  mammiferous  quadruped  began.  And  after 
the  further  lapse  of  ages,  the  elevatory  fiat  went  forth  yet 
once"  more  in  an  act  of  creation  ;  and  whh  the  human,  heaven- 
aspiring  dynasty,  the  moral  government  of  God,  in  its  con- 
nection with  at  least  the  world  which  we  inhabit,  "  took  be- 
ginning." And  then  creation  ceased.  Why?  Simply  be- 
cause God's  moral  government  had  begun,  —  because  in  ne- 
cessary conformity  with  the  institution  of  that  government,  there 


ON    GEOLOGIC    HISTORY.  331 

was  tc  oe  a  thorough  identity  maintained  between  the  glori- 
fied and  immortal  beings  of  the  terminal  dynasty.,  and  the 
dying  magnates  of  the  dynasty  which  now  is ;  and  because, 
in  consequence  of  the  maintenance  of  this  identity  as  an 
essential  condition  of  this  moral  government,  mere  acts  of 
creation  could  no  longer  carry  on  the  elevatory  process. 
The  work  analogous  in  its  end  and  object  to  those  acts 
of  creation  which  gave  to  our  planet  its  successive  dynas- 
ties of  higher  and  yet  higher  existences,  is  the  work  of 
Redemption.  It  is  the  elevatory  process  of  the  present  time, 
—  the  only  possible  provision  for  that  final  act  of  re-crea- 
tion "  to  everlasting  life,"  which  shall  usher  in  the  terminal 
dynasty. 

1  cannot  avoid  thinking  that  many  of  our  theologians 
attach  a  too  narrow  meaning  to  the  remarkable  reason  "  an- 
nexed to  the  Fourth  Commandment"  by  the  Divine  Law- 
giver. "  God  rested  on  the  seventh  day,"  says  the  text, 
"  from  all  his  work  which  Pie  had  created  and  made ;  and 
God  blessed  the  seventh  day,  and  sanctified  it."  And  such 
is  the  reason  given  in  the  Decalogue  why  man  should  also 
rest  on  the  seventh  day.  God  rested  on  the  Sabbath,  and 
sanctified  it ;  and  therefore  man  ought  also  to  rest  on  the 
Sabbath,  and  keep  it  holy.  But  I  know  not  where  we  shall 
find  grounds  for  the  belief  that  that  Sabbath-day  during 
which  God  rested  was  merely  commensurate  in  its  duration 
with  one  of  the  Sabbaths  of  short-lived  man,  —  a  brief  period, 
measured  by  a  single  revolution  of  the  earth  on  its  axis.  We 
have  not,  as  has  been  shown,  a  shadow  of  evidence  that  He 
resumed  his  work  of  creation  on  the  morrow  :  the  geologist 
finds  no  trace  of  post-Adamic  creation,  —  the  theologian  can 
tell  us  of  none.  God's  Sabbath  of  rest  may  still  exist;  —  the 
work  of  Redemption  may  be  the  work  of  his  Sabbath  day.  That 


332  BEARING  OF  FINAL  CAUSES 

elevatory  process  through  successive  acts  of  creation  which 
engaged  Him  during  myriads  of  ages,  was  of  an  ordinary 
week-day  character  ;  but  m  V.en  the  term  of  his  moral  gov- 
ernment began,  the  elevatory  process  proper  to  it  assumed 
the  Divine  character  of  the  Sabbath.  This  special  view  ap- 
pears to  lend  peculiar  emphasis  to  the  reason  embodied  in 
the  commandment.  The  collation  of  the  passage  with  the 
geologic  record  seems,  as  if  by  a  species  of  re-translation,  to 
make  it  enunciate  as  its  injunction,  "  Keep  this  day,  not 
merely  as  a  day  of  memorial  related  to  a  past  fact,  but  also 
as  a  day  of  cooperation  with  God  in  the  work  of  elevation  in 
relation  both  to  a  present  fact  and  a  future  purpose.  God 
keeps  his  Sabbath,"  it  says,  "  in  order  that  He  may  save  ; 
keep  yours  also,  in  order  that  ye  may  be  saved."  It  serves, 
besides,  to  throw  light  on  the  prominence  of  the  Sabbatical 
command,  in  a  digest  of  law  of  which  no  part  or  tittle  can 
pass  away  until  the  fulfilment  of  all  things.  During  the  pres- 
ent dynasty  of  probation  and  trial,  that  special  work  of  both 
God  and  man  on  which  the  character  of  the  future  dynasty 
depends,  is  the  Sabbath-day  work  of  saving  and  being 
saved.* 


*  The  common  objection  to  that  special  view  which  regards  the 
dmjs  of  creation  as  immensely  protracted  periods  of  time,  furnishes  a 
specimen,  if  not  of  reasoning  in  a  circle,  at  least  of  reasoning  from  a 
mere  assumption.  It  first  takes  for  granted,  that  the  Sabbath  day 
during  which  God  rested  was  a  day  of  but  twenty-four  hours  ;  and 
then  argues,  from  the  supposition,  that  in  order  to  keep  up  the  propor- 
tion between  the  six  previous  working  days  and  the  seventh  day  of 
rest,  which  the  reason  annexed  to  the  fourth  commandment  demands, 
these  previous  lays  must  also  have  been  days  of  twenty-four  hours 
each.  It  would,  I  have  begun  to  suspect,  square  better  with  the 
ascertained  fa:ts,  and  be  at  least  equally  in  accordance  with  Scripture^ 
to  reyerse  t^e  process,  and  argue  that,  because  God's  working  dayp 


ON    GEOLOGIC    HISTORY.  333 

It  is  in  tiis  dynasty  of  the  future  that  man's  moral  and 
intellectual  faculties  will  receive  their  full  development. 
The  expectation  of  any  very  great  advance  in  the   present 


were  immensely  protracted  periods,  his  Sabbath  must  also  be  an  im- 
mensely protracted  period.  The  reason  attached  to  the  law  of  the 
Sabbath  seems  to  be  simply  a  reason  of  proportion ;  — the  objection  to 
which  I  refer  is  an  objection  jDalpably  founded  on  consideratmis  of 
proportion.  And  certainly,  were  the  reason  to  be  divested  of  pro- 
portion, it  would  be  divested  also  of  its  distinctive  character  as  a 
reason.  "Were  it  to  run  as  follows,  it  could  not  be  at  all  understood  : 
—  "  Six  days  shalt  thou  labor,  &c.,  but  on  the  seventh  day  shalt  thou 
do  no  labor,  &c. ;  for  in  six  immensely  protracted  periods  of  many 
thousand  years  each  did  the  Lord  make  the  heavens  and  earth,  &c., 
and  then  rested  during  a  brief  day  of  twenty-four  hours  ;  therefore 
the  Lord  blessed  the  brief  day  of  twenty-four  hours,  and  hallowed 
it."  This,  I  repeat,  would  not  be  reason.  All,  however,  that  seems 
necessary  to  the  integrity  of  the  reason,  in  its  character  as  such,  is, 
that  the  proportion  of  six  parts  to  seven  should  be  maintained.  God's 
periods  may  be  periods  expressed  algebraically  by  letters  symbohcal 
of  unknown  quantity,  and  man's  periods  by  letters  symbolical  of 
quantities  well  known ;  but  if  God's  Sabbath  be  equal  to  one  of  his 
six  working  daj-s,  and  man's  Sabbath  equal  to  one  of  his  six  working 
days,  the  integrity  of  proportion  is  maintained.  When  I  see  the  pal- 
pable absurdity  of  such  a  reading  of  the  reason  as  the  one  given 
above,  I  can  see  no  absurdity  whatever  in  the  reading  which  I  sub- 
join :  —  "  Six  periods  (a=:a=a=a=a=a)  shalt  thou  labor,  &c.,  bxit  on 
the  seventh  period  (b=a)  shalt  thou  do  no  labor,  &c. ;  for  in  six  veri- 
ods  (x=x=x=x=x^=x)  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  &c.,  and 
rested  the  seventh  period,  (j/=x ;)  therefore  the  Lord  blessed  the 
seventh  period,  and  hallowed  it."  The  reason,  in  its  character  as  a 
reason  of  proportion,  survives  here  in  all  its  integrity.  Man,  when  in 
his  unfallcn  estate,  bore  the  image  of  God,  but  it  must  have  been  a 
miniature  image  at  best ;  —  the  proportion  of  man's  week  to  that  of 
his  Maker  may,  for  aught  that  appears,  be  mathematically  just  in  its 
proportions,  and  yet  be  a  miniature  image  too,  —  the  mere  scale  of  a 
map,  on  which  inches  represent  geographical  degrees.  All  thosjQ 
week  days  and  Sabbath  days  of  man  which  have  come  and  gone  since 


334  CONCLUSION. 

scene  of  things  —  great,  at  least,  when  measured  by  man's 
large  capacity  of  conceiving  of  the  good  and  fair  —  seems 
to  be,  like  all  human  hope  when  restricted  to  time,  an  expec- 
tation doomed  to  disappointment.  There  are  certain  limits 
within  wiiich  the  race  improves;  —  civilization  is  better  than 
the  want  of  it,  and  the  taught  superior  to  the  untaught  man. 
There  is  a  change,  too,  effected  in  the  moral  nature,  through 
that  Spirit  which,  by  working  belief  in  the  heart,  brings  its 
aspirations  into  harmony  with  the  realities  of  the  unseen  world, 
that,  in  at^east  its  relation  to  the  future  state,  cannot  be  esti- 
mated too  highly.  But  conception  can  travel  very  far  beyond 
even  its  best  effects  in  their  merely  secular  bearing ;  nay,  it 
is  peculiarly  its  nature  to  show  the  men  most  truly  the  sub- 
jects of  it,  how  miserably  they  fall  short  of  the  high  standard 
of  conduct  and  feeling  which  it  erects,  and  to  teach  them, 
more  emphatically  than  by  words,  that  their  degree  of  happi- 
ness must  of  necessity  be  as  low  as  their  moral  attainments 
are  humble.  Further,  —  man,  though  he  has  been  increasing 
in  knowledge  ever  since  his  appearance  on  earth,  has  not 
been  improving  in  faculty  ;  —  a  shrewd  fact,  which  they  who 
expect  most  from  the  future  of  this  world  would  do  well  to 
consider.  The  ancient  masters  of  mind  were  in  no  respect 
inferior  in  calibre  to  their  predecessors.  We  have  not  yet 
shot  ahead  of  the  old  Greeks  in  either  the  perception  of  the 
beautiful,  or  in  the  ability  of  producing  it ;  there  has  been  no 
improvement  in  the  inventive  faculty  since  the  Iliad  was 
written,  some  three  thousand  years  ago;  nor  has  taste  become 


man  first  entered  upon  this  scene  of  being,  with  all  which  shall  yet 
come  and  go,  until  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  terminates  the  work 
of  Redemption,  may  be  included,  and  probably  are  included,  in  the 
one  Sabbath  day  of  God. 


CONCLUSION.  335 

more  exquisite,  or  the  perception  of  tie  narmony  of  numbers 
more  nice,  since  the  age  of  the  ^neid.  Science  is  cumu- 
lative in  its  character  ;  and  so  its  votaries  in  modern  times 
stand  on  a  higher  pedestal  than  their  predecessors.  But 
though  nature  produced  a  Newton  some  two  centuries  ago, 
as  she  produced  a  Goliath  of  Gath  at  an  earlier  period,  the 
modern  philosophers,  as  a  class,  do  not  exceed  in  acti  al  stat- 
ure the  worse  informed  ancients,  —  the  Euclids,  Archimedeses, 
:ind  Aristotles.  We  would  be  without  excuse  if,  with  the  Ba- 
con, Milton,  and  Shakspeare  of  these  latter  ages  of  the  world 
full  before  us,  we  recurred  to  the  obsolete  belief  that  the  hu- 
man race  is  deteriorating ;  but  then,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
have  certain  evidence,  that  since  genius  first  began  uncon- 
sciously to  register  in  its  works  its  own  bulk  and  proportions, 
there  has  been  no  increase  in  the  mass  or  improvement  in  the 
quality  of  individual  mind.  As  for  the  dream  that  there  is  to 
be  some  extraordinary  elevation  of  the  general  platform  of 
the  race  achieved  by  means  of  education,  it  is  simply  the 
hallucination  of  the  age,  —  the  world's  present  alchemical 
expedient  for  converting  farthings  into  guineas,  sheerly  by 
dint  of  scouring.  Not  but  that  education  is  good  ;  it  exercises, 
and,  in  the  ordinary  mind,  developes,  faculty.  But  it  will  not 
anticipate  the  terminal  dynasty.  Yet  further, —  man's  aver- 
age capacity  of  happiness  seems  to  be  as  limited  and  as  inca- 
pable of  increase  as  his  average  reach  of  intellect :  it  is  a 
mediocre  capacity  at  best ;  nor  is  it  greater  by  a  shade  now, 
in  these  days  of  power-looms  and  portable  manures,  than  .« 
the  times  of  the  old  patriarchs.  So  long,  too,  as  the  law  of 
increase  continues,  man  must  be  subject  to  the  law  of  death, 
with  its  stern  attendants,  suffering  and  sorrow  ;  for  the  two 
laws  go  necessarily  together ;  and  so  long  as  death  reigns, 
human  creatures,  in  even   the  best  of  times,  will  continues  to 


336  CONCLTTSION. 

quit  this  scene  of  being  without  professing  much  satisfactioL 
at  what  tliey  have  found  either  in  it  or  themselves.  It  will  no 
doubt  be  a  less  miserable  world  than  it  is  now,  when  the  good 
come,  as  there  is  reason  to  hope  they  one  day  shall,  to  be  a 
majority  ;  but  it  will  be  felt  to  be  an  inferior  sort  of  world 
even  then,  and  be  even  fuller  than  now  of  wishes  and  long- 
ings for  a  better.  Let  it  improve  as  it  may,  it  will  be  a  scene 
of  probation  and  trial  till  the  end.  And  so  Faith,  undeceived 
by  the  mirage  of  the  midway  desert,  whatever  form  or  name, 
political  or  religious,  the  phantasmagoria  may  bear,  must  con- 
tinue to  look  beyond  its  unsolid  and  tremulous  glitter,  —  its 
bare  rocks  exaggerated  by  the  vapor  into  air-drawn  castles,  and 
its  stunted  bushes  magnified  into  goodly  trees,  —  and,  fixing 
her  gaze  upon  the  re-creation  yet  future,  —  the  terminal  dy- 
nasty yet  unbegun,  — she  must  be  content  to  enter  upon  her 
final  rest — for  she  will  not  enter  upon  it  earlier  —  "at 
return  " 

"  Of  Him,  the  Woman's  Seed, 
Last  in  the  clouds,  from  heaven  to  be  revealed 
In  glory  of  the  Father,  to  dissolve 
Satan  with  his  perverted  world,  then  raise 
From  the  conflagraiit  mass,  purged  and  refined, 
New  heavens,  new  earth,  ages  of  endless  date, 
Founded  in  righteousness,  and  peace,  and  love. 
To  bring  forth  fruits,  — joy  and  eternal  bliss." 

But  it  may  be  judged  that  I  am  trespassing  on  a  field  into 
which  I  have  no  right  to  enter.  Save,  however,  for  its  close 
proximity  with  that  in  which  the  geologist  expatiates  as  prop- 
erly his  own,  this  little  volume  would  never  have  been  writ- 
ten. It  is  the  fact  that  man  must  believingly  cooperate  with 
God  in  the  work  of  preparation  for  the  final  dynasty,  or  exist 
throughout  its  never-ending  cycles  as  a  lost  and  degraded 
creature,   that    alone   renders    the   development    hypothesis 


CONCLUSION.  337 

formidable.  But  inculcating  that  the  elevatory  process  is  one 
of  the  natural  law,  not  of  moral  endeavor,  —  by  teaching,  in- 
ferentially  at  least,  that  in  the  better  state  of  things  which  is 
coming  there  is  to  be  an  identity  of  race  with  that  of  the  ex- 
isting dynasty,  but  no  identity  of  individual  consciousness, 
—  that,  on  the  contrary,  the  life  after  death  which  we  are  to 
inherit  is  to  be  merely  a  horrid  life  of  wriggling  impurities, 
originated  in  the  putrefactive  mucus,  —  and  that  thus  the  men 
who  now  live  possess  no  real  stake  in  the  kingdom  of  the 
future,  —  it  is  its  direct  tendency,  so  far  as  its  influence  ex- 
tends, to  render  the  required  cooperation  with  God  an  impos- 
sibility. For  that  cooperation  cannot  exist  without  belief  as 
its  basis.  The  hypothesis  involves  a  misreading  of  the  geologic 
record,  which  not  merely  affects  its  meaning  in  relation  to 
the  mind,  and  thus,  in  a  question  of  science,  substitutes  error 
for  truth,  but  which  also  threatens  to  affect  the  record  itself, 
in  relation  to  the  destiny  of  every  individual  perverted  and 
led  astray.  It  threatens  to  write  down  among  the  degraded 
and  the  lost,  men  who,  under  the  influence  of  an  unshaken 
faith,  might  have  risen  at  the  dawn  of  the  terminal  period,  to 
enjoy  the  fulness  of  eternity  among  the  glorified  and  th* 
good. 


IMPORTANT 

LITERARY  AND    SCIENTIPIC  WORKS 


PUBLISHED     BT 


GOULD     AND     LINCOLN, 

59  WASHINGTON  STREET,  BOSTON, 


ANNUAL  OF  SCIENTIFIC  DISCOVERY;  or,  Year  Book  of  Facts 
ill  Srience  and  Art,  exhibiting  the  most  important  Discoveries  and  Iinprovcmcnts  in 
KIcch.iiiics,  Useful  Afts,  Natural  Philasoptiy,  Chemistry,  Astronomy,  Meteorolog}', 
ZooKifiy,  Botany,  Mineralogy,  Geology,  Geography,  Aniiquitie?,  etc. ;  together  with  a  list 
of  recent  Scientific  Publications,  a  classified  list  of  Patents,  Obituaries  of  eminent  Scien- 
tific .Men,  an  Index  of  important  Papers  in  Scientific  Journal.s,  Reports,  &.c.  Edited  by 
David  A  Wells,  A.  M.    J2iiio,  cloth,  1,25 

This  work,  commenced  in  the  year  1850,  and  issued  on  the  first  of  JIarch  annually,  contains  all 
iiiiportunt  facts  discovered  or  announced  during  the  year.  Each  volume  is  distinct  in  itscir,  and  con- 
tains eiitireli/  new  matter,  with  a  fine  portrait  of  some  distinguisheil  scientific  man.  As  it  is  not  in- 
tended exclusively  for  scii-ntific  men,  but  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  general  leader,  it  has  been  the  aim 
of  the  editor  that  the  articles  should  be  brief,  and  intelligible  to  all.  The  editor  has  received  the  appro- 
bation, counsel,  and  personal  contributions  of  the  prominent  scientific  men  throughout  the  country. 

THE  FOOTPRINTS  OF  THE  CREATOR;  or,  The  Asterolepis  of 
Str<mines5.  Willi  numerous  Illustrations.  By  HUGH  .MlLLER,  author  of  "  The  Old  Red 
Sand-^lone,"  &c.  From  the  third  London  Edition.  With  a  Memoir  of  the  Author,  by 
Louis  Agassiz.    12mo,  cUith,  1,00. 

Dr.  RfCKLAXD,  at  a  meeting  of  the  British  Association,  said  he  had  never  been  so  much  aston- 
ished ir  his  lif<?,  by  the  |x>wers  of  any  men,  as  he  harl  been  by  the  geological  descriptions  of  Mr.  ^liller. 
Thit  wonderful  man  di'scribed  these  olqects  with  a  facility  which  made  him  ashamed  of  the  com- 
parative meagrepess  and  poverty  of  his  own  descriptions  in  the  **  Bridgewnter  Treatise,"  which  had 
cost  him  hours  and  days  of  labor,  ffe  uoulrl  ffhe  his  left  haml  to possfxi stick potcem  o/description 
as  this  tnnn  :  anil  if  it  pleased  Providence  to  spare  his  useful  life,  he,  if  any  one,  would  certainly  ren- 
der science  attractive  and  popular,  and  do  equal  service  to  theology  and  geology. 

BIr.  Miller's  style  is  remarkably  pleasing;  his  mode  of  popularizing  geological  knowledge  unsnr^ 
passed,  perhaps  unequalled:  and  the  deep  reverence  for  divine  revelation  pervading  all  adds  inter, 
est  and  value  to  the  volume.  —  *V.  J'.  Coin.  Advertiser. 

The  publishers  have  again  covered  themselves  with  honor,  by  giving  to  the  American  public,  with 
the  autIior*s  permission,  an  elegant  reprint  of  a  foreiim  work  of  science.  "We  earnestly  bespeak  foi, 
this  work  a  wide  and  free  circulation  among  all  who  love  science  much  and  religion  more. —  Puri-; 
tan  liecorder. 

THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTOXE;  or.  New  Walks  in  an  iM  Field.  B> 
Hugh  .Miller.     Hlu.strated  with  Plates  and  Geological  Sections.    12mo,  cloth,  1,00. 

Sfr.  Miller's  exccedinglv  interesting  book  on  this  formation  is  just  the  sort  of  work  to  render  a«iy 
eabjeet  popular.  It  is  written  in  a  remarkably  pleasing  style,  and  contains  a  wonderful  amount  of 
infunu  itinn  —  Westminster  Revietc. 

It  is,  withal,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  specimens  of  English  composition  to  be  found,  conveying 
Information  on  a  most  difficult  and  profound  science,  in  a  style  at  once  novel,  pleasing,  and  e'.i'ffant. 
It  contains  the  results  of  twenty  years' close  observation  nnd  experiment,  resulting  in  an  accumulation 
Of  facts  wh  ch  not  only  dissipate  some  d.irk  and  knotty  old  theories  with  regard  to  ancient  formations, 
but  establish  the  great  truths  of  geology  in  mora  perfect  and  harmonioiu  coixsiit«ncy  with  the  great 
truths  of  revelation.  —  Albany  Spectator,  J^ 


VALUABLE    SCIENTIFIC    WORKS. 


A  TREATISE  ON  THE  COMPARATIVE  ANATOMY  OF  THE 

Animal  Kingdom.  By  Profs.  C.  Tu.  VoN  Siebold  iiiid  H.  Stannius.  Tiansl.iieJ 
from  tlie  German,  with  Notes,  Additions,  &c..  By  VVaLDO  J.  BURNETT,  M.  U.,  Boston. 
Oue  volume    octavo,  cloth.  3,00. 

This  is  unquostionably  the  best  and  most  complete  work  of  its  class  yet  published ;  nnd  its  appear- 
ance in  an  Eiiglisli  dress,  with  tlie  corrections,  improvements,  additions,  etc.,  of  the  American  Editor, 
v'Al  no  doubt  be  welcomed  by  tlie  men  of  science  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  from  whence  or- 
ders for  supplies  of  the  work  have  been  received. 

THE  rOETRY  OF  SCIENCE  ;  or.  the  Physical  Phenomena  of  Nature. 
By  Robert  Hunt,  Author  of"  Panthea,""  Researches  of  Light, "&c.   12mo,  cloth,  1,25. 

We  are  heartily  glad  to  see  this  interesting  work  republished  in  America.  It  is  a  book  that  u  a 
book. —  Scientific  American. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  readable,  interesting,  and  instructive  works  of  the  kind  that  we  have  erer 
seen.  —  fhU.  Christian  Observer, 

THE  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  SPECIES :  its  Typical  Forms 
and  Primeval  Distribution.  By  Charles  Hamilton  S.mith.  With  an  Introduction, 
containing  an  Abstract  of  the  Views  of  BUnneiihach,  Prichard,  Bachman,  Agassiz,  and 
other  writers  of  repute.  By  Samuel  Kneeland,  Jr.,  M.  D.  With  elegant  Hlustra^ 
tions.     12ino,  cloth,  1,25. 

The  history  of  the  species  is  thoroughly  considered  by  Colonel  Smith,  with  regard  to  its  origin, 
typical  forms,  distribution,  filiations,  i:c.  The  marks  of  practical  good  sense,  careful  observation, 
and  deep  rcsearcli  are  displaj'cd  in  every  page.  An  introductory  essay  of  some  seventy  nr  eighty 
pages  form?  a  valuable  addition  to  tlie  work.  It  comprises  an  abstract  of  the  opinions  advocated  by 
the  mo'-t  eminent  writers  on  the  subject  The  statements  are  made  with  strict  impartiality,  and, 
•without  a  comment,  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  reader.  —  Sartain's  Magazine. 

This  work  exhibits  great  research,  as  well  as  an  evident  taste  and  talent,  on  the  part  of  tlie  author, 
for  the  study  of  the  history  of  man,  upon  zoological  principles.  It  is  a  book  of  learninsr,  nnd  full  of 
interest,  and  may  be  regarded  as  among  the  comparatively  few  real  contributiims  to  science,  that 
ter\e  to  redeem,  in  some  measure,  the  mass  of  useless  stuff'  under  which  the  prtss  groans.  —  Chris, 
}Vitncss. 

This  book  is  characterized  by  more  curious  and  interesting  research  than  any  one  that  has  recently 
come  under  our  examination.  —  AVxiny  Journal  and  Register. 

It  contains  a  learned  and  thorough  treatment  of  an  important  subject,  always  interesting,  and  of 
late  attracting  more  than  usual  attention.  —  Ch.  Register. 

The  volume  before  us  is  one  of  the  best  of  the  publishers'  series  of  publications,  replete  with  rare 
and  valuable  information,  presented  in  a  style  at  once  clear  ami  entertaining,  illustrated  in  the  most 
copious  manner  with  plates  of  all  the  various  forms  of  the  human  race,  tracing  with  tlie  most  minute 
precision  analogies  and  resemblances,  and  hence  origin.  The  more  it  is  read,  the  more  widely  opens 
this  field  of  research  before  the  mind,  again  and  asain  to  be  returned  to,  with  fresh  zest  and  satisfac-  • 
tion.  It  is  the  result  of  the  researches,  collections,  and  labors  of  a  long  and  valuable  lifetiuie,  present- 
ed in  the  most  popular  form  imaginable.  —  Albany  Spectator. 

LAKE  SUPERIOR :  its  Physical  Character.  Vepretation.  and  Animals, 
compared  with  those  of  other  and  similar  resions.  By  L.  Agassiz,  and  Contributions 
from  other  eminent  Scientific  Gentlemen.  With  a  Narrative  of  the  Expedition,  and 
Illustrations.     By  J.  E.  Cabot.     One  volume,  octavo,  elegantly  illustrated.   Ch.th,  3,50. 

The  illustrations,  seventeen  in  number,  arc  in  the  finest  stvle  of  the  art.  by  Sonrel:  embracing 
lake  and  landscape  scenery,  fishes,  and  other  objects  of  natural  history,  with  an  outline  map  of  Lake 
Superior. 

This  work  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  scientific  works  that  has  appeared  in  this  country.  Embody- 
ing the  researches  of  our  best  scientific  men  relatine  to  a  hitherto  comparatiyely  nnknowp  region, 
it  will  be  found  to  contain  a  great  amoiuit  of  scientific  InformatioB.  B 


GUYOT'S    WORKS. 


THE    EARTH    AND    MAN:    Lectures  on  Comparative  Physical 

GEOtjRAPHY,  ill  its  relation  to  the  Flistory  of  iMankind.  By  Piof.  Arnold  Guyot. 
Traiulaled  from  tlie  French,  by  Prof.  C.  C.  Felton,  witli  numerous  lUustrutiona. 
Ei^jlith  tliuusand.     13mo,  cloth,  1,25. 

From  Prof  Louts  Agnssiz,  of  Hanmrd  University. 

It  will  not  only  render  the  study  of  Geography  more  attractive,  !)ut  actually  snow  it  in  its  true  light, 
namely,  as  the  scicwce  of  tlie  relations  which  exist  between  nature  and  man  throughout  history ;  of 
the  contrasts  observed  between  the  different  parts  of  the  globe;  of  tlie  laws  of  horizontal  and  vertical 
forms  of  tJie  dry  Uind,  in  its  contact  with  the  sea;  of  climate,  &c.  It  would  be  highly  serviceable,  It 
(cciiis  to  me.  for  the  t>enefit  of  schools  and  teachers,  that  you  should  induce  Mr.  Uuyot  to  write  a  se- 
ries of  graduated  text  books  fi  geography,  from  the  first  elements  up  to  a  scientific  treatise.  It  would 
give  new  life  to  these  studies  in  this  country,  oud  be  the  best  preparation  for  sound  statistical  investi- 
gations. 

From  George  S.  RlUard.  Esq.,  of  Boston. 

Proffssor  Gnyot's  Lectures  are  marked  by  learning,  ability,  and  taste.  His  bold  and  comprehen- 
sive generalizations  rest  upon  a  careful  foundation  of  facts.  The  essential  value  of  his  st;itomint3  is 
enhanced  by  his  luminous  arrangement,  and  by  a  vein  of  philosophical  reflection  which  gives  life  and 
dignity  to  dry  details.  To  teachers  of  youth  it  will  be  especially  important.  They  may  learn  Irom  it 
how  to  make  Geography,  which  I  recall  as  the  least  interesting  of  studies,  one  of  the  most  attractive) 
and  1  earnestly  commend  it  to  their  careful  consideration. 

Those  who  have  been  accustomed  to  regard  Geography  as  a  merely  descriptive  branch  of  learn- 
ing, drier  than  the  remainder  biscuit  after  a  voyage,  will  be  delighted  to  find  this  hitherto  unattractive 
pursuit  conveited  into  a  science,  the  principles  of  which  arc  definite  and  the  results  conclusive.— 
A'orth  American  Jteitew. 

The  grand  idea  of  the  work  is  happily  expressed  by  the  aut  lOT,  where  he  calls  it  the  geogrnphtcat 
march  of  history.  Faith,  science,  learning,  poetry,  taste,  in  a  word,  genius,  have  liberally  contributed 
to  the  production  of  the  work  under  review  Sometimes  we  feel  as  if  we  were  studying  a  treatise  on 
the  exact  sciences :  at  others,  it  strikes  the  ear  like  an  epic  poem.  Now  it  reads  like  history,  and  now 
It  sounds  like  prophecy.  It  will  find  readers  in  whatever  language  it  may  be  published.  —  CViiistian 
JCxiuniner. 

The  work  is  one  of  high  merit,  exhibiting  a  wide  range  of  knowledge,  great  research,  and  a  philo- 
sophical spirit  of  investigation.  Its  perusal  will  well  repay  the  most  learned  in  such  subjects,  and 
five  new  views  to  all  of  man's  relation  to  the  globe  he  inhabits.—  Silliinan's  Journal. 

COMPARATIVE  PHYSICAL  AND  HISTORICAL  GEOGRAPHY; 
or.  the  Study  (<f  the  Eartii  and  its  tnhaliitanls.  A  iSeries  of  graduated  courses  for  the  use 
of  Schools.    By  Arnold  Guyot,  author  of  "  Earth  and  Man,"  etc. 

The  series  hereby  announced  will  consist  of  three  courses,  adapted  to  the  capacity  of  three  different 
ages  and  periods  of  study.  The  first  is  intended  for  primary  schools  and  for  children  of  from  seven 
to  ten  years.  The  second  is  adapted  for  higher  schools,  and  for  young  persons  of  from  ten  to  fifteen 
year-.    The  third  is  to  be  used  as  a  scientific  manual  in  Academies  and  Colleges. 

Each  course  will  be  divided  into  two  parts,  one  on  purely  Physical  Giography.  the  other  for  Eth- 
nography, Statistics,  Political  and  Ilistorical  Geography.  Each  part  will  be  illustr.ited  by  a  colored 
Physical  and  Political  Atlas,  prepared  expressly  for  this  purpose,  delineating,  with  the  greatest  care, 
tlie  configuration  of  the  surface,  and  the  other  physical  phenomena  alluded  to  in  the  corresponding 
work,  tlie  distribution  of  the  races  of  men,  and  the  political  divisions  into  states.  Sec,  &c. 

The  two  parts  of  the  first  or  preparatory  course  are  now  in  a  forward  state  of  preparation,  and  witt 
be  issued  at  on  early  day. 

GUYOT'S  MURAL  MAPS  :  a  Series  of  elegant  Colored  Maps,  projected 
on  a  large  scale,  for  the  Recitation  Room,  consisting  of  a  Map  of  the  World,  North  and 
South  Ainerii-a,  Europe,  Asia,  Africa.  &.C.,  exhibiting  the  Physical  Phenomena  of  Uie 
Globe,  etc.     By  Prof  .\r\old  Guyot.     Price,  mounted,  10,00  each. 

MAP  OF  THE  WORLD,-  Now  readV. 

MAP  OF   NORTH   AMERICA, -Now  ready. 

MAP  OF  SOUTH   AM  ERICA, -Nearly  ready. 

MAP  OF  GEOGRAPHICAL  ELEMENTS, -Now  ready. 
Jf^  Other  Maps  of  tht  Series  an  in  preparation.  O 


VALUABLE   SCIENTIFIC   WORKS. 


PRmCIPLES  OF  ZOOLOGY:  touching  the  Structure,  Development, 
Di.stribiitii>ii,  and  Natural  Arrangement  of  the  Races  of  Aiiiinals,  living  and  extinct. 
With  numerous  Illustrations.  For  the  Use  of  Schools  and  Colleges.  Part  I.,  Compara- 
tive PHi'siOLOGY.  By  Louis  Agassiz  and  Augustus  A.  Gould.  Revised 
Edition.     ISaio,  cloth,  1,00. 

This  work  places  us  in  possession  of  information  half  a  century  in  advance  of  all  our  elementary 
works  on  this  subject.  .  .  No  work  of  the  same  diniensions  hns  ever  apiie-ired  in  the  English  Urn- 
■  Euage  coniiining  so  much  new  and  valuable  iufurmatiou  on  tlie  subject  of  which  it  treaU.  —  Fuor. 
Jau£S  Uall. 

A  work  emanating  from  so  high  a  source  hardly  requires  commendation  to  give  it  currency.  The 
volume  is  prepared  for  the  student  in  zoological  science;  it  is  simple  and  ekinintary  in  its  style,  full 
in  its  illustrations,  comprehensive  in  its  range,  yet  well  condensed,  and  brought  into  the  narrow  com- 
pass requisite  for  the  purpose  intended. —  SUUinan's  Journal. 

The  work  may  safely  be  recommended  as  the  best  book  of  the  kind  in  our  language.  —  Christicoi 
Mxwmner, 

It  is  not  a  mere  book,  but  a  work  -  a  real  work,  in  the  ft)rm  of  a  book.  Zoology  is  an  interesting 
science,  and  is  here  treated  with  a  masterly  hand.  The  history,  imatoniical  structure,  the  nature  and 
habits  of  numberless  animals,  are  described  in  clear  and  pUun  language,  and  illustrated  with  innume^ 
able  engravings.  It  is  a  work  adapted  to  colleges  and  schools,  and  uo  young  man  should  be  without 
it.  —  Scientijic  Anierican^ 

PRINCIPLES  OF  ZOOLOGY,  PART  IL  Systematic  Zoology,  in 
which  the  Piinciples  of  Classification  are  applied,  and  the  principal  Groups  of  Animals 
are  l/i'iefly  characterized.     With  numerous  Illustratious.     12ino,  in  yrcparalion. 

THE  ELEMENTS  OF  GEOLOGY;  adapted  to  Schools  and  Colleges, 
will)  numerous  Illustrations.  By  J  R.  LooMlS,  late  Professor  of  Cliemistry  and  Geology 
in  Waterville  College.     12ino,  cloth,  75. 

After  a  thorough  examination  of  the  work,  wc  feel  convincPd  that  in  all  the  requirements  of  a  text 
book  of  natural  science,  it  is  surpassed  by  no  work  before  the  American  public  In  this  opinion  w« 
believe  the  great  body  of  experienced  teachers  will  concur.  The  work  will  be  found  equally  well 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  those  who  have  given  little  or  no  attention  to  the  science  in  early  life,  and  ara 
desirous  to  become  acquainted  with  its  terms  and  principles,  with  the  least  consumption  of  time  and 
labor.  We  hope  that  every  teacher  among  our  readers  will  examine  the  work  and  put  the  jiistnest 
of  our  remarks  to  the  test  of  his  judgnieut  and  experience.  -  M.  B.  A>'U£USOli,  Prea.  iff  Hocheater 
Universitji. 

This  is  just  such  a  work  as  is  needed  for  our  schools.  It  contains  a  systematic  statement  of  the 
principles  of  Geolosry,  without  entering  into  the  minuteness  of  detail,  which,  though  interesting  to  the 
mature  student  confuses  the  learner.  It  very  wisely,  also,  avoids  those  controverted  points  which 
mingle  geology  with  questions  of  biblical  criticism.  We  see  no  reason  why  it  should  not  take  it* 
place  as  a  text  book  in  all  the  schools  in  the  land.  —  N.  Y.  Ohscii-er. 

This  volume  merits  the  attention  of  teachers,  who,  if  we  mistake  not,  will  find  it  better  adapted  to 
Sieir  purpose  than  any  other  similar  work  of  which  we  have  knowledge.  It  embodies  a  statement 
c'  the  principles  of  Geology  sufficiently  full  for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  instruction,  with  the  leading 
'  facts  from  which  they  are  deduced.  It  embraces  the  latest  results  of  the  science,  and  indicates  the 
debatable  points  of  theoretical  geolosry.  The  plan  of  the  work  is  ciniple  and  clear,  and  the  style  in 
which  it  is  written  is  both  compact  and  lucid.  We  have  special  pleasure  in  welcoming  its  appearance. 
—  Watchman  and  Reflector. 

This  volume  seems  to  be  just  the  book  now  required  on  ecology.  It  will  acquire  rapidly  a  circula- 
tion, and  will  do  much  to  popularize  and  universally  diffuse  a  knowledge  of  geological  truths.  —  Al- 
bany  Journal. 

II  gives  a  clear  and  scientific,  yet  simple,  analysis  of  the  main  features  of  the  science.  It  seems,  in 
language  and  illustration,  admirably  adapted  for  use  as  a  text  book  in  coiumou  schools  and  academies i 
while  it  is  vastly  better  than  any  thing  which  was  used  in  college  in  our  time*  In  all  tlicse  capacitiee 
Ve  particularly  and  cordially  recoxumeud  it.  —  Conifregatumaiut,  Moston.  D 


CHAMBERS'S    WOllKS. 


CHAMBERS'S   CYCLOPEDIA  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE.    A 

Selection  of  the  choicest  productions  of  English  Autliors,  from  the  earliest  to  the  present 
time.  Connected  hy  a  Oitical  and  Biographical  History.  Forming  two  large  imperial 
octavo  volumes  of  14U0  pages,  double  column  letter-press  ;  with  upwards  of  300  elegant 
Illustrations.    Edited  by  Robert  Chambers,  embossed  clotli,  5,00. 

This  work  embraces  about  one  thousand  authors,  chronologically  arranged  and  classed  as  Poets, 
Historians,  Ununutist-i,  Puilosophers,  Metaphysicians,  Divines,  etc.,  with  choice  selections  (rom  their 
writings,  connected  by  a  Biograpliical,  Historical,  and  Critical  Narrative ;  thus  presenting  a  coinplcle 
view  of  English  literature  from  the  earliest  to  the  present  time.  Let  the  reader  open  wliere  he  will, 
"he  cannot  t'iiil  to  find  in;ittcr  for  profit  and  delight.  The  selections  are  gems —  infinite  riches  in  « 
little  room;  in  the  language  of  another,  "A  whole  English  Library  fused  r>owif  into  osz 

CIIKAI-   BOOK  ■    ' 

FiiOJi  W.  IL  PitEscoTT.  AUTHOE  OF  "  FERDINAND  AND  ISABELLA."  The  plan  of  the  work  ia 
very  juilicious.  It  will  put  the  reader  in  a  proper  point  of  view  for  surveying  the  whole  ground 

over  which  he  is  travelling.  ..  .  Such  readers  cannot  fail  to  profit  largely  by  the  labors  of  the  critic 
who  has  the  talent  and  taste  to  separate  what  is  really  beautiful  and  worthy  of  their  study  from  what 
Is  superfluous. 

I  concur  in  the  foregoing  opinion  of  Mr,  Prescott.  —  Edward  Everett. 

A  popular  work,  indispensable  to  the  library  of  a  student  of  English  literature.  —  Dr.  ■Watland. 

We  hail  with  peculiar  pleasure  the  appearance  of  this  work.  —  A'orth  American  Review. 

It  has  been  fitly  described  as  '  a  whole  Engluh  library  fttsed  down  into  one  cheap  book."  The  Bos- 
ton edition  combint'S  neatness  with  cheapness,  engraved  portraits  being  given,  over  and  above  tlxe  il- 
lustrations of  the  English  copy.  —  N.  Y.  Commercial  Advertiser. 

Welcome  more  than  welcome  It  was  our  good  fortune  some  months  ago  to  obtain  a  glance  at  t'ii» 
work  and  we  have  ever  since  looked  with  earnestness  for  its  appearance  in  an  American  edition. — 
^.  y.  Recorder. 

tSS"  The  American  edition  of  this  valuable  work  is  enriched  by  the  addition  of  fine  steel  and  mezzo- 
tint engravings  of  the  heads  of  Suaksi'Eare,  Addison,  BvRON  ;  afuU  length  portrait  of  Dr.  John- 
son, and  a  beautiful  scenic  representation  of  Oliver  Goldsmith  and  Dr.  Joh.vson.  These  im- 
po>tant  and  elegant  additions,  together  with  superior  paper  and  binding,  render  the  American  far  su- 
perior to  the  English  edition.  Tlie  circulation  of  this  mo.st  va! uable  and  iwpular  work  has  been  truly 
enormous,  and  its  sale  in  this  country  still  continues  unabated. 

CHAMBERS'S  MISCELLANY  OF  USEFUL  AND  ENTERTAIN- 
ING KNOWLEDGE.  Edited  by  William  Chambers.  With  Elegant  lUustrativ* 
Engravings.     Ten  volumes,  IGmo,  cloth.,  7,50  ;  cloth,  gilt  back,  10.00. 

This  work  has  been  highly  recommended  by  distinguished  individuals,  as  admirably  adapted  to 
Family,  Sabbath,  and  District  School  Libraries. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  any  miscellany  superior  or  even  equal  to  it :  it  richly  deserves  the  epi- 
th^ts  •'  useful  and  entertaining,"  and  I  would  recommend  it  very  strongly  as  extremely  well  adapted 
to  form  parts  of  a  Iibr.ary  for  the  young,  or  of  a  social  or  circulating  library  in  town  or  country. — 
Gkoroe  B.  Emerson,  Esq.,  Chairman  Boston  School  Book  Committee. 

I  am  gratified  to  have  an  opportunity  to  be  instrumental  in  circulating  "  Chambers's  Miscellany" 
among  the  schools  for  which  I  am  superintendent.  — J.  J.  Clute,  Town.  Sup.  ofCastleton,  X.  K 

I  am  fully  satisfied  that  it  is  one  of  the  best  series  in  our  common  school  libraries  now  in  circula- 
tion. -    S.  T.  Ua.vce,  Town  Sup,  of  Macedun,  Wayne  Co.,  SW  I'. 

The  trustees  have  examined  the  "  Miscellany,"  and  are  well  pleased  with  it.  I  have  engaged  tha 
l)Ooks  to  every  district  that  has  library  money.  —  Miles  Chaffee,  Town  Sup.  of  Concord,  y.  1'. 

I  am  not  acquainted  with  any  similar  collection  in  the  English  language  that  can  compare  with  it 
for  purposes  of  instruction  or  amusement  I  should  rtyoice  to  see  that  set  of  books  in  every  bouse  in 
•ur  country. —  Rev.  John  O.  Cholles  D.  D. 

The  information  contained  in  this  work  is  surprisingly  great ;  and  for  the  fireside,  and  the  yonng, 
particularly,  it  cannot  fail  to  prove  a  most  valuable  and  entertaining  companion.  — X  Y.  Evangelist. 

It  is  an  admirable  compilation  distinguished  by  the  good  teste  which  has  been  shown  in  all  the  pub' 
Ucations  of  tli«  Messrs.  Chambers.  It  unites  the  useful  ajid  entertaining.  —  A".  1'.  Com.  Adv. 

E 


CHAMBERS'S    WORKS. 


CHAMBERS'S  HOME  BOOK  AND  POCKET  MISCELLANY.  Con- 
taining a  Clioice  Selection  of  Interesting  and  Instructive  Reading  for  the  OW  and  the 
Young.     Six  vols.     ICino,  cloth,  3,00. 

This  work  is  considered  fully  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  cither  of  the  Chambers's  other  vorks  in  In- 
terest, and  like  tliein,  contains  a  vast  fund  of  valuable  lufonnauon.  Following  somewhat  the  phm 
of  the  "  .Miscellany, '  it  is  admirably  adapted  to  tlie  school  or  the  family  library,  furnishing  ample  va- 
riety for  every  class  of  readers,  both  old  and  young. 

■W'e  do  not  know  how  it  is  possible  to  publish  so  much  pood  reading  matter  at  such  a  low  price 
We  speak  a  good  word  for  the  literary  excellence  of  the  stories  in  tliis  work  :  we  hope  our  piople  wih 
introduce  it  into  all  their  families  in  order  to  drive  away  the  miserable  flashy-trashy  stuif  so  ofteu 
Ibund  in  the  hands  of  our  young  people  of  both  sexes.  —  Scienlijic  American. 

Both  an  entertaining  and  instructive  work,  as  it  is  certainly  a  very  cheap  one.  -  •  Puritan  Recorder. 

It  cannot  but  have  an  extensive  circulation.  —  Albany  Express. 

Excellent  stories  from  one  of  the  best  sources  in  the  world.  Of  all  the  series  of  cheap  books,  thii 
promises  to  be  the  best  —  Bangor  Mercury. 

If  any  person  wishes  to  read  for  aniuscmeut  or  profit,  to  kill  time  or  improve  it,  get  "  Chambers'i 
Home  Book."  —  Cliicayo  Times, 

The  Chambers  are  confessedly  the  best  caterers  for  popular  and  useful  reading  in  the  world.  — 
Willis's  Home  Journal. 

A  very  entertaining,  instructive,  and  popular  work.  —  .V.  T.  Commercial. 

The  articles  are  of  that  attractive  sort  which  suits  us  in  moods  of  indolence,  when  we  would  linger 
half  «ay  between  wakefulness  and  sleep.  Tlicy  require  just  thought  and  activity  enougii  to  keep  our 
feet  from  the  land  of  Xod,  witnout  forcing  us  to  run,  walk,  or  even  stand.  —  Eclectic,  I'ortland. 

The  reading  contained  in  these  l)ooks  is  of  a  miscellaneous  character,  calculated  to  Iiave  the  very 
best  effect  upon  the  minds  of  young  readers.  While  the  contents  are  very  far  from  being  puerile,  they 
are  not  too  heavy,  but  most  admirably  calculated  for  the  object  intended.  —  Evening  Gazette. 

Coming  from  the  source  they  do,  we  need  not  say  that  the  articles  are  of  the  highest  literary  exceK 
lenee.    We  predict  for  the  work  a  large  sale  and  a  host  of  admirers.  —  East  Eoston  Ledger. 

It  is  just  the  thing  to  amuse  a  leisure  hour,  and  at  the  same  time  combines  instruction  with  amuse- 
ment. —  Dover  Inquirer. 

Messrs.  Chambers,  of  Edinburgh,  have  become  famous  wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken 
and  read,  for  their  interesting  and  instructive  publications.  Vic  have  never  yet  met  with  any  thing 
which  bore  the  sanction  of  their  names,  whose  moral  tendency  was  in  the  least  degree  questionable. 
They  combine  instruction  with  amiucntent,  and  throughout  tliey  breathe  a  spirit  of  tlie  purest  moral- 
ity.—  C/iicago  Tribune, 

CHAMBERS'S  REPOSITORY  OF  INSTRUCTIVE  AND  AMUSING 
PAPERS.  With  Illustrutiuns.  An  entirely  .New  Series,  and  containing  Original  Arti- 
cles.    ICmo,  cloth,  per  vol.  53  cents. 

The  Slessrs.  Chambers  have  recently  commenced  the  publication  of  this  work,  under  the  title  of 
"CiiAMBEiis's  Repositokv  OF  IxsTRLCTivE  A.N u  AuLsiNO  TRACTS,"  in  the  form  of  penny 
weekly  sheets,  similar  in  style,  literary  character,  &c.,  to  the  "  Sliscellany,"  which  has  maintained  an 
enormous  circulation  of  more  than  eighty  thousand  copies  in  England,  and  has  already  reached  nearly 
the  same  sale  in  this  country. 

Arrangements  have  been  made  by  the  American  publishers,  by  which  they  will  issue  the  work 
Bimultancously  with  the  English  edition,  in  two  monthly,  handsomely  Iwund.  IGmo.  volumes,  of  iKJO 
pages  each,  to  continue  until  the  whole  series  is  completed.  Each  volume  complete  in  itselt^  and  will 
be  sold  ill  sets  or  single  volumes. 

O-  Commendatory  Letters,  Reviews,  Notices,  *c.,  of  each  of  Chambers's  works,  sufficient  to  make 
•  good  sized  duodecimo  volume,  have  iK'en  received  by  the  publishers,  but  room  here  will  (mlv  allow 
giving  a  spechnen  of  tlie  vast  multitude  at  hand.  They  are  all  popular,  and  contain  valuable  instruc- 
tive and  «Qt«rtaiaing  reading  —  such  as  should  be  found  in  every  family,  school,  and  college  library. 

F 


I  M  P  O  E  T  A  N  T     W  O  E  K . 


KITTO'S    rOPULAR    CYCLOPAEDIA   OF    BIBLICAL    LITERA. 

TL'llE.  Coiideiised  Iroiii  the  iar-ier  work,  fytlie  Aiitlior,  Joil.N  KlTTO,!).  1).,  Aiillior 
ot"  PictiiriaJ  Bible,''  "  History  ot' Palestine,"  "Scripture  Daily  Ueadliigs,"  tc.  Assisted 
by  James  TAVLoa,  D.  D.,  orciaiguw.  WiXh  ocerjice  hundred  lU.ajitr<Uwns.  One  vol-, 
uiiie  octavo,  81:J  pj).,  cloth,  3,0J. 

The  Popclab  Biblical  Cvclopjidia  of  I-itebatcbe  is  designed  to  furnish  a  Dictioxart 
OF  TUK  Bible,  embodying  the  products  of  the  best  and  most  recent  rcsearclies  in  biblical  literature, 
in  wiiich  tJie  scholars  of  £urope  and  America  have  been  eiig:iged.  The  work,  tlie  result  of  immense 
IvtWiT  and  research,  and  enriched  by  tile  contributions  of  writers  of  distinguished  eminence  in  the  va- 
rious departments  of  sacred  literature,  has  been,  by  universal  consent,  pronounced  the  best  work  of 
It  liass  extant,  and  the  one  best  suited  to  tlie  advanced  knowledge  of  the  present  day  in  all  the  stuuies 
connected  with  theological  scicme.  It  is  not  only  intended  for  ministers  and  theological  rtiuleuts, 
fcut  is  also  particularly  adapted  to  jiarcnts,  SabtMt/i  school  teachers,  anil  the  great  I.oih;  o/  Hie  religioua 
ptijic.    The  lUiLstrutioiis,  aniouuting  to  tiiore  than  three  hundred,  are  of  the  very  highest  order. 

A  comler^sed  new  oj  the  various  tranckcs  of  BiUical  Science  comprehended  in  the  tcork. 

1.  Biblical  Ckiticism,— Embracing  the  History  of  the  Bible  Languages  ;  Canon  of  Scriptnrej 
Literary  History  and  Peculiarities  of  the  Sacred  Liooks  ;  Formation  and  History  cf  Strii)ture  Texts. 

2.  H  iSTOuy,  —  Proper  Names  of  Persons ;  Biographical  Sketches  of  prominent  Characters ;  Detailed 
Accounts  of  important  Events  recorded  m  Scripture  ;  Chronology  and  Genealogy  of  Scripture. 

3.  Gkogkapiiy,  — Names  of  Places;  Description  of  Scenery ;  Eoundnrics  and  Mutual  KeUtions  of 
the  Countries  mentioned  in  Scripture,  so  far  as  necessary  to  illustrate  the  Sacred  Text. 

4.  AiiCiixoLOa  V,  —  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Jews  and  other  nations  mentioned  in  Scripture ; 
Uicir  Sacred  Institutions,  Jlilitary  Affairs,  Political  Arrangements,  I.itci-ary  and  Scientific  Pursuits. 

6.  Physical  Science,— Scripture  Cosmogony  and  Astronomy,  Zoology,  Mineralogy,  Botany, 
Meteorology. 

In  addition  to  ntmierous  flattering  notices  and  reviews,  personal  letters  from  more  than  f, fly  of  the 
tnost  (listiitgmshed  Minister:^  and  La;/]):cn  offfiJTerent  rcli^jious  ilcnominations  in  the  countrff  ii::vc  becq 
•eceived,  highly  commending  this  work  as  admirably  adapted  to  ministers,  Sabbath  school  teachem, 
Iliads  of  families,  and  all  Bible  students. 

The  following  extract  of  a  letter  is  a  fair  specimen  of  individual  letters  received  from  eacA  of  the 
gentlemen  whose  names  arc  given  liclow  :  — 

"  I  have  examined  it  with  special  and  unaHored  satisfaction.  It  has  the  rare  merit  of  being  all  that 
it  professes  to  bCj  and  very  few,  I  am  sure,  who  may  consult  it  will  deny  that,  in  richness  and  fulness 
of  dcta.l.it  surpasses  their  expectation.  Many  ministers  will  find  it  a  valuable  auxiliary;  but  iti 
thief  excellence  is,  that  it  funiishcs  just  the  facilities  which  are  needed  by  the  thousands  in  families 
and  Sabbath  schools,  who  arc  engaged  in  the  important  business  of  biblical  education.  It  is  in  itself  a 
Bbrory  of  reliable  information." 

AV.  B.  Spratruc,  D.  D.,  P.istnr  of  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

5.  i.  Carruthers,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  Second  Parish  Congregational  Church,  Portland,  Jle. 

Joel  Uawes,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  First  Congregational  Church,  Hartford,  Ct. 

Daniel  Sharp.  D.  D.,  late  Pastor  of  Third  Bapti.'^t  Church,  Boston. 

K.  1..  Frothiiigham,  IJ.  U..  late  Pastor  of  First  Congregational  Church,  (T'nitarian,)  Boston. 

Ephraim  Peabody,  D   D.,  Pastor  of  Stone  Chapel  Congregational  Church,  (Unitarian^  Bottoa. 

A.  !>.  Stone,  Pastor  of  Park  Street  Congregational  Church.  Boston. 

John  S.  Sumo,  U.  D.,  Rector  of  Christ  Church,  (Episcopal,)  Brooklyn,  N.  T. 

J.B.  Waterbury.  D.  D ,  Pastor  of  Bowdoin  Street  Church,  (Congregational,)  Boston. 

Baron  Stow,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  Uowe  Street  Baptist  Church,  Boston. 

Thomas  H.  Skinner,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  Carmine  Prcsb>-terian  Church,  New  York. 

Samuel  W.  Worcester,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  the  Tabernacle  Church.  (Congregational^  Salem, 

Horace  BushnelU  D.  D_  Pastor  of  Third  Congregational  Church,  Hartford,  Ct. 

Eight  Reverend  J.  M.  Wainwright.  D.  D..  Trinity  Church,  (Episcopal.)  New  York. 

Gardner  Spring.  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  the  Brick  Church  Chaprl  Presbyterian  Church,  New  YoilC. 

W.  T.  Jlwight,  D.  D..  Pastor  of  Thirtl  Congregational  Chnreh.  Portland,  Me, 

E.  N.  Kirk.  Pastor  of  Mount  Vernon  Consresrational  Church.  Boston. 

Prof.  Georjre  Bush,  author  of  "  Notes  on  the  Scriptures,"  New  York. 

Howard  Malrom,  D.  D.,  author  of  "  Bible  Dictionary,"  and  Pres  of  Lewisbnrg  TTniversity. 

Henri'  J  Ripiev.  D.  D..  author  of  "  Notes  on  the  Scriptures,"  and  Prof,  in  Newton  Theol.  In*. 

N.  Porter,  Prof,  in  Yale  Ollrffe.  New  Haven.  Ct. 

Jared  Snarks.  Edward  Everett.  Theodore  Frrrmghnyscn.  Robert  C.  "Winthroo,  John  McLean, 

Simon  Greenleaf.  Thomas  S.  Williams,  — and  a  large  namberof  others  of  like  char«cter  and 

•tanding  of  the  above,  whose  names  cannot  here  appear,  H 


VALUABLE     WOKK. 


CYCLOPAEDIA  OF  ANECDOTES  OF  LITERATURE  AND  THE 

FINK  AU'l'ri.  Containing  a  copious  and  ciioice  selection  of  Anecdotes  of  tlie  various 
forms  of  Lileramro,  of  llje  Arts,  of  Arcliiteclure,  Engravings,  Music,  Poetry,  Painting, 
and  Sculpture,  and  of  tlie  most  celebrated  Literary  Cliaraciers  and  Artists  of  diirorcnl 
Countries  and  Ages,  &;c.  Dy  Kazlitt  Arvine,  A.  M.,  Autliorof  "  Cyclopedia  of  .Moral 
and  Ueligioiis  Anecdotes."     With  numerous  lUustratiuns.    725  pages  octavo,  cloili,  3,0U. 

This  is  unquestionably  the  choicest  collection  of  anecdotes  ever  published.  It  contains  three  thou- 
vui'l  an<tfi>rtij  Anecdotes,  many  of  them  articles  of  interest,  containing  reading  matter  tqu;\l  to  half  a 
dozen  piges  of  a  common  l.'nio.  volume ;  and  such  is  tlie  wonderful  variety,  that  it  will  be  found  an 
almost  inexhaustible  fund  of  interest  for  every  class  of  readers.  The  elaborate  elassilicatioii  and  in- 
dexes must  commend  it,  especially  to  public  speakers,  to  the  various  classes  of  literary  and  scitutifie 
men,  to  uriists,  mev/ianics,  ami  others,  as  a  Dictionaky./oa-  reference,  in  relation  to  ficts  on  tlie  num- 
berless subjects  and  cliaractcra  introduced.  Tliere  arc  also  more  than  o«£  hundred  and  Ji/tujiae 
llluftratioiis. 

AVe  know  of  no  work  which  in  the  same  space  comprises  so  much  valuable  information  in  a  form 
to  cutertaming,  and  so  well  adapted  to  make  an  indelible  impression  upon  the  mind.  It  must  become 
1  standard  wcrk,  and  be  ranked  among  the  few  bouka  which  are  iudispeusable  to  every  complete 
library.—  y.  1'.  Chronicle. 

Here  is  a  perfect  repository  of  the  most  choice  rnd  approved  specimens  of  this  spechs  of  informa- 
tion, selected  with  tlio  crt^atest  care  from  all  sources,  ancient  and  modern.  Tlic  work  is  replete  with 
such  cntert  linment  as  is  adapted  to  all  grades  of  readers,  tlie  most  or  least  intellectuuL  —  Methodist 
Quarterly  Muyazine, 

One  of  the  most  complete  things  of  the  kind  ever  given  to  the  public.  Tliere  i>)  scarcely  a  paragraph 
In  the  ivhole  book  which  will  not  interest  some  one  deeply  ;  for,  while  men  of  letters,  a.'-gumcnt,  and 
art  cannot  allbrd  to  do  witliout  its  immense  tund  of  sound  maxims,  pungent  wit,  apt  illustrations,  and 
brilliant  examples,  the  merchant,  mechanic  and  laborer  will  fmd  it  one  of  the  choicest  companion*  of 
the  liours  of  relaxation.  "  Whatever  be  the  mood  of  one's  mind,  and  however  limited  the  time  for 
reading,  in  the  almost  endless  variety  and  great  brevity  of  the  articles  lie  can  lind  something  to  suit 
his  feilijgs.  winch  he  can  begin  and  end  at  once.  It  may  also  be  made  ihe  very  life  ol  the  8oei;-.l  circle, 
ccntaiiuiig  pleasant  reading  for  all  ages,  at  all  times  and  seasons.  —  HujD'alo  Coininerciul  Advertiser. 

A  well  spring  of  entertainment,  to  be  drawn  from  at  any  moment,  comprising  the  choicest  nnecdotct 
of  distinguished  men,  from  the  remotest  period  to  the  present  time.  —  Ilangor  Whig. 
A  magnificent  collection  of  anecdotes  touching  literature  and  the  fine  arts.  —  AVixxny  Spectator. 

This  work,  which  is  the  most  extensive  and  comprehensive  collection  of  anecdotes  ever  published, 
cannot  fail  lo  become  highly  popular.  —  Salem  Ga::elte. 

A  publication  of  which  there  is  little  danger  of  speaking  in  too  flattering  terms ;  o  perfect  Thesanrns 
of  rare  and  curious  infVirmation,  carefully  selected  and  methodically  arrangeil.  Ajewul  of  a  book  to 
lie  on  one's  table,  to  snatch  up  in  those  brief  moments  of  leisure  that  could  not  be  very  pro.'.tiibly 
turned  to  account  by  recourse  to  any  connected  work  in  any  department  of  literature. —  'iroy  liiidyct. 

No  family  ought  to  be  withmit  it,  for  it  is  at  once  cheap,  valuable,  and  very  inten'Sting ;  containin; 
matter  compiled  from  all  kinds  of  books,  from  all  quarters  ot  the  globe,  from  all  ages  of  the  world,  and 
in  rcLition  to  every  corporeal  matter  at  all  worthy  of  being  remarked  or  remembered.  No  \vo:k  has 
been  issued  from  the  press  for  a  number  of  years  for  which  there  was  such  a  manifest  want,  and  we 
are  cerLiin  it  only  needs  to  be  known  to  meet  with  an  iminensc  sale.  —  Sew  Jersey  Union. 

A  well-pointed  anecdote  is  often  useful  to  illustrate  an  argument,  and  a  memory  well  stored  with  per- 
lonal  incidents  enables  the  possessor  to  entertain  lively  and  agreeable  conversation.—  S.  1'.  Com. 

A  rich  treasury  of  thought,  and  wit.  and  learning,  illustrating  the  characteristics  and  peculiarities  w 
many  of  the  most  distinguished  names  in  the  history  of  literature  and  the  arts.  —  Phd.  Chrif.  Ojs. 

The  range  of  topics  is  very  wide,  relating  to  nature,  religion,  science,  and  art:  furnishing  apposite 
illustrations  for  the  preacher,  the  orator,  the  Sabbath  school  teacher,  and  the  instructors  of  our  com- 
mor- schools,  academies,  and  colleges.  It  must  prove  a  valuable  work  for  the  fireside,  us  well  as  for 
the  library,  as  it  is  calculated  to  please  and  edify  all  classes.  —  Zanesville  Ch.  Rer/ister. 

TlifS  is  one  of  the  most  entertainins  works  for  desultory  readin?  we  have  seen,  and  will  no  douM 
have  a  very  extensive  circulation.  As  a  most  cntertMininz  table  book,  we  hardly  know  of  any  thing 
«t  unce  to  iu»truutive  and  amusing.  —  N.  ¥.  Ch.  IntelUgenctr,  G 


DIPOETAXT  WOUKS. 

ANALYTICAL  COXCOIIDAXCE  OF  THE  HOLY  SCIHPTTRES ; 
or,  Tlie  Bible  presented  under  Distinct  and  Classified  Heads  or  Tcpics.  By  Jous 
Eadie,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Author  of  "  Biblical  CycIoiMcdia,"  "  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible,"  &c.,  &c.  One  volume,  royal  octavo,  833  pp.  Cloth,  S3.00;  sheep,  $3.50. 
Just  published. 

The  publishers  would  call  the  special  attention  of  clergymen  and  others  to  some  of  the  peculiar 
features  of  tliis  great  work. 

1.  It  is  a  concordance  of  euhjectt,  not  of  words.  In  this  it  differs  from  the  common  concordance, 
Whicli,  of  course,  it  docs  not  supersede.    Botli  are  necessary  to  the  Biblical  student. 

2.  It  embraces  all  the  topics,  both  secular  and  religious,  wliich  are  naturally  suggested  by  tlie  entire 
contents  of  tl>e  Eible.  In  this  it  differs  from  Scripture  iiauuals  and  Topical  Text-books,  which  are 
confined  to  religious  or  doctrinal  topics. 

5.  It  contains  the  who^e  of  the  Dible  tcithont  ahridfjment,  differing  in  no  respect  from  the  Kible  in 
common  use,  except  in  the  classification  of  its  contents. 

4.  It  contains  a  synopsis,  separate  from  the  concordance,  presenting  within  tlie  compass  of  a  few 
pages  a  bird's-eye  view  of  tlie  wliole  contents. 

5.  It  coctains  a  table  of  contents,  embracing  nearly  two  thousand  heads,  arranged  in  alphabetical 
order. 

C.  It  is  m'.ich  superior  to  the  only  otlier  work  in  the  language  prepared  on  the  same  general  plan, 
and  is  offered  to  the  public  at  much  less  cost. 

The  purchaser  gets  not  only  a  Concortlanee,  but  also  a  ECU,  in  this  volume.  The  superior  con- 
venience arising  out  of  this  fact,  —  saving,  as  it  does,  the  necessity  of  having  two  bookj  at  hand  and 
of  making  two  references,  instead  of  one, —  will  be  readily  apparent. 

Tlie  general  subjects  (under  each  of  vhich  there  are  a  vast  number  of  sub-divisions)  are  arranged 
es  follows,  viz. ; 

Agriculture,  Genealogy,  Slinisters  of  Religion,    Sacrifice, 

Anim:ils,  God,  Miracles,  Scriptures, 

Architecture,  Heaven,  Occupations,  Speech, 

Army,  Arms,  Idolatry,  Idols,  Ordinances,  Spirits, 

Body,  Jesus  Christ,  Parables  and  Emblems,  Tabernacle  and  Temple, 

Canaan,  Jews,  Persecution,  Vineyard  and  Orchard, 

Covenant,  Laws,  Praise  and  Prayer,  Visions  and  Dreams, 

Diet  and  Dress,  Slagistnitcs,  Prophecy,  War, 

Disease  and  Death,    Man,  Providence,  Water. 

Earth,  Marriage,  Redemption, 

Family,  Metals  and  Alinerals,  Sabbaths  and  Iloly  Days, 

That  such  a  work  as  this  is  of  exceeding  great  convenience  is  matter  of  obvious  remark.  Bnt  it 
ts  much  more  than  that ;  it  is  also  an  instructive  work.  It  is  adapted  not  only  to  assist  tlie  student 
in  prosecuting  the  investigation  of  preconceived  ideas,  but  also  to  impart  ideas  which  the  most  care- 
ful reading  of  the  Bible  in  its  ordinary  arrangement  might  not  suggest.  Let  him  take  up  any  one  of 
the  subjects  —  "  Agriculture,"  for  example  —  and  see  if  such  be  not  the  case.  This  feature  places 
the  work  in  a  higher  grade  than  that  of  the  common  Concordance.  It  shows  it  to  be,  so  to  speak,  a 
work  of  more  mind. 

Ko  Biblical  student  would  willingly  dispense  with  this  Concordance  when  once  possessed.  It  is 
adapted  to  the  necessities  of  all  classes,  —  clergymen  and  theological  students ;  Sabbatli-school 
tupcrintcndcnts  and  teachers;  authors  engaged  in  the  composition  of  religious  and  even  secular 
works;  and,  in  fine,  common  readers  of  the  Bible,  intent  only  on  their  own  improvement. 

A  COMMENTARY  ON  THE  ORIGINAL  TEXT  OF  THE  ACTS 
OF  THE  APOSTLES.  By  Horatio  B.  Hackett.  D.  D.,  Professor  of  Biblical  Liter- 
ature and  Interpretation,  in  the  Xewton  Theological  Institution.  CCP"A  new, 
revised,  and  enlarged  edition.    Octavo,  cloth.    In  Press. 

I£3~  This  most  important  and  very  popular  work,  has  been  throughly  revised  fsome  parts  being 
entirely  rewritten),  and  considerably  enlarged  by  the  introduction  of  important  new  matter,  the 
result  of  tlie  Author's  continued,  laborious  investigations  since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition, 
aided  by  the  more  recent  published  criticisms  on  this  portion  of  the  Divine  Word,  by  othev  distin- 
(uished  Biblical  Scholars,  in  this  country  and  in  Europe.  (T) 


WORKS   POR  BIBLE   STUDENTS. 


A  TREATISE  ON  BIBLICAL  CRITICISMS;  Exhibiting  a  Syst» 
malic  View  oftiiat  Science.  By  Samuel  Davieson,  D.  D.,  of  tlie  University  of  Ilalln 
Aiitliiir  of  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity  of  the  New  Testainei:t,"  "  lulnidiictiun  to  the  New 
TeLitamcnt,"  "  Sacred  Hurnieneutics  Developed  and  Applied.  A  new  Revised  and  En- 
lar^'eJ  EJitijii,  in  two  elegant  octavo  volumes,  clotfi,  5,00. 

Tliese  volumes  contain  a  statement  of  the  sources  of  criticism,  such  as  the  MSS.  of  the  Ilebrew  Bi- 
We  and  G;eck  Testament,  the  principal  versions  of  both,  quotations  from  them  in  early  writers,  par- 
alk'li,  an  J  also  the  internal  evidence  on  which  critics  re!y  for  obtaining  a  pure  text.  A  history  of  the 
texts  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  with  a  description  of  t!ie  Hebrew  and  Greek  languages  in 
■which  the  Scriptures  are  written.  An  examination  of  the  most  important  passages  whose  readings 
ftre  disputed. 

Every  thing,  in  shprt.  is  discussed,  which  properly  belongs  to  the  criticism  of  the  text,  comprehend- 
ing nil  that  comes  under  the  title  of  General  Introduction  in  lutroduclious  to  the  Uld  and  ^'uw  Tea- 
taments. 

HISTORY  OF  PALESTINE,  fiom  the  Pntriarchal  Ag-e  to  the  Present 

Time  ;  with  Introductory  Chapters  on  the  Geography  and  Natural  History  of  the  Coun- 
try, find  on  the  Customs  and  Institutions  of  the  Hebrews.  Fy  John  Kitto,  D.  D., 
Author  of"  Scripture  Daily  Readings,"  "  Cyclop'tedia  of  liiblical  Literature,"  &.C.  With 
upwards  of  two  hundred  lUudtralions.     12nio,  cloth,  1,25. 

A  very  full  compendium  of  the  geography  and  history  of  Palestine,  from  the  earliest  era  mentioned 
In  Scripture  to  the  present  day  ;  not  merely  a  dry  record  of  boundaries,  and  the  succession  of  rulers, 
but  an  intelligible  account  of  the  agriculture,  habits  of  life,  literature,  science,  and  art,  with  the  re- 
ligious, political,  and  judicial  institutions  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Uoly  Land  in  all  ages.  The  de. 
Bcriptive  portions  of  tlie  work  are  increased  in  value  tiy  numerous  wood  cuts.  A  more  useful  and 
instructive  book  has  rarely  been  published.—  iV.  }'.  Co:nmcrcitxl. 

■Whoever  will  read  this  book  till  he  has  poFscsscd  himself  thornnghly  of  its  contents,  will,  wo  ren- 
tuie  to  say,  read  the  Bible  with  far  more  iutcUigcncc  and  satisfaction  during  all  the  rest  of  his  life. — 
2*uritiin  llecordcr, 

Ecynnd  all  dispute,  this  is  the  best  historicHl  compendium  of  the  Holy  Land,  from  the  days  of 
Abraham  to  those  of  the  late  I'asha  of  Egypt,  Mchcniet  Aii.  —  Euini^urgh  J^eview. 

cy  In  the  numerons  notices  and  reviews  the  work  has  been  strongly  recommended,  as  not  only  ad- 
mirably adapted  to  ihc/wuil!/,  but  also  as  a  text  book  for  SaUMth  and  week  day  schools. 

CRUDEN'S  CONDENSED  CONCORDANCE ;  a  New  and  Complete 
Concordance  to  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Ey  Alexander  Cruden.  Revised  and  Re- 
edileU  by  the  Rev.  David  King,  LL.  D.     Tenth  thousand.    Octavo,  cloth  backs,  1,25 

This  work  is  printed  from  English  plates,  and  is  a  full  and  fair  copy  of  all  that  is  valuable  as  a  Con- 
eordancc  in  Cruden's  larger  work,  in  two  volumes,  which  costs  Jire  dollars,  while  this  edition  is  fur- 
nished at  one  dollar  and  twentij-Jire  cents!  The  principal  variation  from  the  larger  book  consists  in 
the  exclusion  of  the  Bible  Dictionary,  (which  has  always  been  an  incumbrance.)  the  condensation  of 
the  quotations  of  Scripture,  arranged  under  their  most  obvious  heads,  which,  while  it  dimlnishct  the 
balk  of  the  work,  f/reatly  facilitates  the  finding  of  any  required  passage. 

We  have,  in  this  edition  of  Cruden,  the  best  made  better  1  That  is,  the  present  is  better  adapted  to 
the  purposes  of  a  concordance,  by  the  erasure  of  superfluous  references,  the  omission  of  unnecessary 
explanations,  a)id  the  contraction  of  quotations,  etc.  It  is  better  as  a  manual,  and  better  adapted  by 
\U  price,  to  the  means  of  many  who  need  and  ought  to  possess  such  a  work,  tlian  the  former  large  auA 
expensive  edition.  —  Puritan  Jlecordcr, 

The  present  edition,  in  being  relieved  of  some  things  which  contributed  to  render  all  former  ones 
unnecessarily  cumbrous,  witliout  adding  to  the  6ubstan:ial  value  of  tlio  work,  becomes  an  exceedingly 
cheap  book.  —  Alxmy  Argus. 

All  in  the  incomparable  work  of  Crudon  that  is  essentia!  to  a  Concordance  is  presented  in  a  volume 
much  reduced  both  in  size  and  price,  —  M'atchinan  and  llejlector. 

Next  to  the  ni!)le  itself,  every  family  should  have  a  concordance.  No  person  can  study  the  Scrip- 
tures to  advantage  without  one.    Cruden's  ii  the  best  —  Baptist  Jlccord.  I 


WORKS   JUST   PUBLISHED. 


THE  BETTER  LAND  ;  or,  The  Believer's  Journey  and  Futubk  Home.  Bj 
Hev.  a.  C.  Thompson.     12mo,  cloth.     85  cents. 

CosTEWTs.  —  The  PilKrimaee  —  Clusters  of  Eschol  —  Wavmarks  —  Glimpses  of  the  Ijind  — 
The  Passage  —  The  KecoKiiltion  of  Friends  — The  Heavenly  Baminet  —  Chililreii  <.i  Heaven  — 
S-x-lety  of  Anpels  — Society  of  the  Saviour— neaveiily  Honor  and  Kiclies—  NoTears  In  Heaven 
-Holiness  of  Ueaveu— Activity  hi  Heaven  —  Kesurrectlou  Body — Perpetuity  of  Ullss  In  Heaven. 

A  most  charmlru;  and  iDstructive  book  for  all  now  Journeying  to  the  "  Better  Laud." 

THE  SCHOOL  OF  CHRIST  ;  or,  Christianity  Vieavkd  ix  its  Lkadixg 
Aspects.  By  Ri;v.  A.  L.  R.  Foote,  author  of  "Incidents  in  the  Life  oi 
Our  Saviour,"  &c.     Uimo,  cloth,  50  cts. 

ME.AIORIES  OF  A  GRANDMOTHER.     By  a  Lady  of  Massachusetts.     16mo 

cloth.     60  cents. 

"My  path  lies  in  a  valley  which  T  have  sought  to  adorn  with  flowers.  Shadows  from  the  hllli 
i»ver  It,  but  1  make  my  own  sunshine." 
The  little  volume  is  gracefully  and  beautifully  written.  —  JbumnJ. 
:f  ot  unworthy  the  genius  of  a  Dickens.  —  Transcript. 

HOURS  AVITII  EFROPEAN  CELEBRITIES.  By  the  Rev.  William  B. 
Spracue,  D.  D.     I'imo,  cloth.    $1.00.     Second  Edition. 

The  author  of  this  wi  rk  visited  Europe  In  1838  and  in  1836,  under  ciraimstances  which 
afforded  him  an  opportunity  of  making  the  acquaintance,  by  personal  interviews,  of  a  large 
number  of  the  most  distinguished  men  and  women  of  that  continent;  and  in  bis  preface  h« 
says,  "  It  was  my  uiiilorni  custom,  after  ever)'  such  interview,  to  take  copious  memoranda  of 
the  conversation,  hicludlng  an  account  of  the  individual's  appearance  and  manners  ;  in  short, 
detlning,  as  well  as  I  could,  the  whole  impression  which  ids  physical,  intellectual  and  moral 
man  had  made  upon  me."  From  the  memoranda  thus  made,  the  material  for  the  present 
Instructive  and  exceedingly  interesting  volume  is  derived.  Besides  these  "pen  and  ink" 
Sketches,  the  work  cuutaius  the  novel  attraction  of  a  fac-slmile  of  the  slguaturn  of  each  of  th« 
persons  introduced. 

THE    AIMWELL    STORIES. 

A  series  of  volumes  Illustrative  of  youthful  character,  and  combining  Instruction  with  amnse 
ment.  By  Walter  Aimwell,  author  of  "The  Boy's  Own  Guide,"  "The  Boy's  Book  of  Morali 
and  Manners,"  4c.    With  immerous  Illustrations. 

Tlie  first  three  volumes  of  the  seiies,  now  ready,  are  — 

OSCAR  ;  or,  The  Boy  who  had  his  own  Way.     ICmo,  cloth,  gilt.     63  oenta. 
CLINTON  ;  or,  Boy-life  in  the  Country.     16mo,  cloth,  gilt.     63  cents. 
ELLA  ;  or.  Turning  over  a  New  Leaf.     IGmo,  cloth,  gilt.     63  cents. 

JSIS'  Each  volume  will  be  complete  and  independent  of  Itself,  but  the  series  will  be  con- 
nected by  a  partial  identity  of  character,  localities,  Ac. 

THE  PLURALITY  OF  AVORLDS.  A  New  Edition.  With  a  Supplementary 
Dialogue,  in  which  the  author's  reviewers  are  reviewed.     12iuo,  cloth.     $1 

Tills  masterly  production,  which  has  excited  so  much  interest  in  this  country  and  in  Europe, 
*ill  now  have  an  increased  attraction  in  the  addition  of  the  Supplement,  in  which  the  aathcr's 
eviewers  are  triumphantly  reviewed. 

jBS"  The  Supplement  will  be  furnished  separate  to  those  who  have  the  original  work. 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  SCIENCE  UPON  INTELLECTUAL 
EDUCATION.  By  William  Whewell,  D.  D.,  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge 
Eng.,  and  the  alleged  author  of  "  Plurality  of  Worlds."    16mo,  cloth.    25  ct8 

THE  LANDING  AT  CAPE  ANNE,  or,  The  Charter  op  the  First  Pevma. 
nknt  Colony  on  the  Teriiitorv  of  the  Massachusetts  Company.  N>.'W 
discovered  and  first  published  from  the  ouicinal  manuscript,  with  an  in 
quiry  into  its  authority,  and  a  IIistorv  op  tub  Colony,  lti24-lt)'28.  Rogej 
Conant  Uoveraor.     By  Joua  Wingate  Thornton.     8vo,  cloth.     $1.50. 

This  is  a  curious  and  exceedingly  valuable  historical  document. 

A.  volimie  of  great  ''iterest  and  Importance  —  Evening  Traveller.  {|i) 


RECENT    PUBLICATIONS. 


HIPTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSTC  IN  AMERICA.  Treating  of  its  peculi 
arities  at  diEFerent  periods  ;  its  legitimate  use  and  its  abuse  ;  with  Criticisms 
Cursory  Remarks,  and  Notices  relating  to  Composers,  Teachers,  Schools, 
Ch-  irs.  Societies,  Conventions,  Books,  etc.  By  Nathaniel  D.  Gould,  Authol 
of  "  Social  Harmony,"  "  Church  Harmony,"  "  Sacred  Minstrel,"  etc.  I'imo, 
cloth.     75  cents. 

Jdrj"  To  all  Interested  In  church  music  (and  ■who  Is  not  Interested)  this  work  will  he  fonnd  to 
wntaln  a  vast  fund  of  Information,  with  much  that  la  novel,  amusing  and  instructive.  In  giving 
a  luliiiue  history  of  Church  Music  for  the  past  eiyMy  years,  there  is  interspersed  throughout  tht 
7olu!ne  many  interesting  in;idpnts,  and  numerous  anecdotes  concerning  Ministers,  Compo 
sers,  Teachers,  Performers  atd  Performances,  Societies,  Choirs,  Ac. 

COMPLETE  POETICAL  WORKS  OF  WILLIAM  COWPER ;  i^ith  a  Lif 
and  Critical  Notices  of  his  Writings.  On  clear  type,  with  new  and  elegan 
Illustrations  on  steel.     IGmo,  cloth,  $1.00  ;  fine  cloth,  gilt,  $1.25. 

POETICAL  WORKS  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT.  With  Life  and  elegan 
Illustrations  on  steel.     IGmo,  cloth,  $1.00  ;   fine  cloth,  gilt,  $1.25. 

mi.TON'S  POETICAL  WORKS.  With  Life  and  elegant  Illustrations. 
16mo,  cloth,  Sl.OO  ;   fine  cloth,  gilt,  $1.25. 

jK^  Thp  above  poetical  works,  by  standard  authors,  are  all  of  uniform  size  and  style,  printed 
on  fine  i)aper,  from  clear,  distinct  type,  with  new  and  elegant  illustrations,  richly  bound  in  full 
gilt,  and  plain  ;  which,  with  the  exceedingly  loio  price  at  which  they  are  offered,  render  them 
the  most  desirable  of  any  of  the  numerous  editions  of  these  authors'  works  now  in  the  market. 

United  States  Exploring  Expedition,  uudor  command  of  Charles  Wilkes,  IT.  S.  N. 

VOLUME    XII. 

MOLLUSCA  AND  SHELLS.  By  Augustus  A.  Gould,  M.  D.  One  elegant 
quarto  volume,  cloth.     $0.00. 

THE  TWO  RECORDS  ;  the  Mosaic  and  the  Geological.  A  Lecture  delivered 
beforfi  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  in  Exeter  Hall,  London 
By  Huca  Miller.     16mo,  cloth.     25  cents. 

4®*  Ho  work  by  Hugh  Miller  needs  commeniation  to  Insure  purchasers. 

NOAH  AND  ins  TIMES;  embracing  the  consideration  of  Tarious  inquiries 
relative  to  the  Ante-diluvian  and  earlier  Post-diluvian  Periods,  with  Discus- 
sl'ius  of  several  of  the  leading  questions  of  the  present  time.  By  Rev.  J 
MuNSON  Olmstead,  A.  M.     12mo,  cloth.     $1.25. 

j(®-  This  Is  not  only  a  popular,  but  a  very  valuable,  work  for  all  Bible  students. 

A  PARISIAN  PASTOR'S  GLANCE  AT  AMERICA.  By  T.  H.  Grasd 
PiEURE,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  the  Reformed  Church,  and  Director  of  the  Mission- 
ary Institution  in  Paris.     IGmo,  cloth.     50  cts. 

The  author  of  this  volume  Is  one  of  the  most  emln»nt  ministers  now  living  of  the  Rcfomie 
Church  of  France.  lie  is  distinguished  as  a  preacher  and  a  writer  ;  as  a  man  of  large  aii<I  lib 
eral  views,  of  earnest  piety,  of  untiring  industry,  and  of  commanding  Influence.  Ills  stale 
mert?  are  ctiaracterised  by  great  correctness  as  well  as  great  candor.  —  Puritan  Recorder. 

THE  CAMEL :  His  Organization,  Habits  and  Uses,  considered  with  refer- 
ence to  his  Introduction  into  the  United  States.  By  Geoege  P.  Marsh,  late  U. 
S.  Minister  at  Constantinople.        ]2mo,  cloth.  75  cts. 

This  l>ook  treats  of  a  subject  of  great  interest,  especially  at  the  present  time.  It  ftimishes  a  more 
comiilete  and  reliable  account  of  tiic  Camel  tlian  any  other  in  tlie  language  ;  indeed,  it  is  believed 
that  there  is  no  other.  It  is  the  result  of  long  study,  extensive  researcli,  and  much  pcrson.il  observa- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  author  ;  and  it  i>:i3  been  prepared  with  speciei  reference  to  the  experiment  of 
doMiestic.iting  the  Camel  in  this  country,  now  going  on  under  the  auspices  of  the  United  States  gov- 
ernnunt.  It  is  written  ia  a  style  worthy  of  the  distinguished  author's  reputation  for  great  learning 
•ud  fine  (cholarahip.  CJ) 


VALUABLE  WORKS. 

THE  HALLIG;  ob,  The  Sheepfold  ix  the  Waters.  A  Tale  of 
Humble  Life  on  the  Coast  of  Schleswig.  Translated  from  the  (jerman  of  Biernatz- 
ski,  by  Mrs.  George  P.  Maksh.  "With  a  Biographical  Sketch  of  the  Author, 
12mo,  cloth.    $1.00. 

The  author  of  this  work  was  the  grandson  of  an  exiled  Polish  nobleman.  Ilis  own  portrait  is 
understood  to  be  drawn  in  one  of  tlie  characters  of  tlie  Tale,  and  indeed  the  wliole  work  lias  a  sub- 
stantial foundation  in  tact.  In  Germany  it  has  passed  througli  several  editions,  and  is  there  regard- 
ed as  the  chef-d'oeuvre  of  the  author.  As  a  revelation  of  an  entire  new  pliase  of  human  society,  it 
will  strongly  remind  tlie  reader  of  Miss  Bremer's  tales.  In  originality  and  brilliancy  of  imagination, 
it  is  not  inferior  to  those;  — its  aim  is  far  higher.  The  elegance  of  Mrs.  Marsli'9  translation  will  at 
once  arrest  the  attention  of  every  competent  jndge. 

Iloif.  Robert  C.  Winthrop.  "  I  have  read  it  with  deep  interest.  Mrs.  Marsh  has  given  us  an 
admirable  versio.fl  of  a  most  striking  and  powerful  work." 

Feom  Prof.  iT.  D.  Huxtinotox,  D.  D.,  in  the  Religious  Magazine.  "  Wherever  the  work 
goes  it  fascinates  the  cultivated  and  the  illiterate,  the  young  and  the  old,  the  devout  and  the  careless. 
Our  own  copy  it  in  brisk  circulation.  The  vivid  and  eloquent  description  of  the  strange  scenery, 
the  thrilling  nciounts  of  the  mysterious  action  of  the  waters  and  vapors  of  the  Schleswig  coast,  &c., 
all  form  a  story  of  uncommon  attractions  and  unraingled  excellence." 

Dr.  Spkaods  in  Albany  Spectator.  "A  rare  and  beautiful  work.  It  is  an  interesting 
contribution  to  the  physical  geography  of  a  part  of  Europe  lying  <iuite  beyond  the  reach  of  ordi- 
nary observatio.i,  and  as  a  genial  and  faithful  sketch  of  human  life  under  conditions  which  are 
hardly  paralleled  elsewhere." 

The  tale  is  a  novel  one,  containing  thrilling  scenes,  as  well  as  religious  teachings.  —  Presbtteriait, 

A  beautiful  and  exquisite  natural  tale.    In  novelty  of  life  and  customs,  as  well  as  in  nicely  drawn 

shades  of  local  and  personal  character  the  Ilallig,    is  equalled  by  very  few  works  of  fiction.  — 

Boston  Atlas. 

The  story,  which  is  deeply  thrilling,  is  exclusively  religious. —  Ch.  Secretary. 

Here  we  have  another  such  book  as  makes  the  reading  of  it  a  luxury,  even  in  hot  summer  weather. 
It  takes  us  to  an  island  home,  in  the  chill  regions  of  tlie  North  Sea,  and  introduces  us  to  pastoral 
scenes  as  lively  and  as  edifying  as  those  of  Oberlin,  in  the  Ban  de  la  Roche. —  Soutuern  Bap. 

THE  CAMEL  :  His  Organization,  Habits  and  Uses,  considered  with  refer  • 
ence  to  liis  Introduction  into  the  United  States,  By  Geobgb  F.  Marsh,  late  U 
S.  Minister  at  Constantinople.    16mo,  cloth.    75  cents. 

This  book  treats  of  a  subject  of  great  interest,  especially  at  the  present  time.  JtfHirnishesthconly 
complete  and  reliable  account  of  the  Camel  in  the  language.  It  is  the  result  of  extensive  research 
and  personal  observation,  and  it  has  been  prepared  with  special  reference  to  tlie  experiment  now 
being  made  by  our  Government,  of  domesticating  the  Camel  in  this  country. 

A  repository  of  interesting  information  respecting  the  Camel.  The  author  collected  the  principal 
iKinterials  for  his  work  during  his  residence  and  travels  for  some  years  in  the  East.  He  describes 
the  species,  size,  color,  temper,  longevity,  useful  products,  diet,  powers,  training  and  speed  of  tho 
Camel,  and  treats  of  his  introduction  into  the  United  States.  — Phil.  Christian  Observer. 

This  is  a  most  interesting  book,  on  several  accounts.  The  subject  is  full  of  romance  and  informa- 
fion  i  the  treatment  is  able  and  thorough.  —  Texas  Ch.  Advocate. 

Our  Government  have  taken  measures  for  introd;ieing  the  Camel  into  this  country,  and  an  appro- 
priation of  130,000  has  been  made  by  Congress.  It  becomes  a  matter  of  practical  importance,  there- 
fore, to  obtain  the  fullest  and  most  reliable  information  possible  respecting  the  animal  and  his  adapta- 
tion to  this  country.  His  advent  among  us  will  stimulate  general  curiosity,  and  raise  a  thousand 
questions  respecting  his  character  and  habits  of  life,  his  powers  of  endurance,  his  food,  his  speed, 
his  length  of  life,  his  fecundity,  the  methods  of  managing  and  using  him,  the  cost  of  keeping  him, 
the  value  of  his  carcass  after  death,  &c.  This  work  furnishes,  in  a  small  compass,  all  the  desired 
Information.- Boston  Atlas. 

A  complete  sketch  of  the  habits  and  nature  of  the  Camel  is  given,  which  has  great  interest.  The 
Vaiue  of  the  camel  aa  a  beast  of  burden  is  abundantly  oouflrmed.  —  N.  Y.  Evanoblist.      (a) 


THESAURUS  OF  ENGLISH  WORDS  AND  PHRASES. 

So  Classified  and  Arranged  as  to  Facilitate  the  Expression  of  Ideas,  and  Assist 
in  Literary  Composition.  By  Peter  Mark  Koget,  late  Secretary  of  the  Koyal 
Society,  and  author  of  the  "  Bridgewater  Treatise,"  etc.  Kevised  and  En- 
larged; with  a  List  of  Foreign  Words  and  Expressions  most  frequently 
occurring  in  works  of  general  Literature,  Defined  in  English,  by  Barnas 
Sears,  D.  D.,  Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Education,  assisted  by 
several  Literary  Gentlemen.     12mo.,  cloth.     gLoO. 

J^=-  A  work  of  great  merit,  admirably  adapted  as  a  text-book  for  schools  and  colleges,  and 
of  high  importance  to  every  American  scholar.  Among  the  numerous  commendations  re- 
ceived from  the  press,  in  all  directions,  the  publishers  would  call  attention  to  the  following : 

We  are  glad  to  see  the  Thesaurus  of  English  Words  republished  in  this  country.  It  is  a  most 
valuable  work,  giving  the  results  of  many  years'  labor,  in  an  attempt  to  classify  and  arrange 
the  words  of  the  English  tongue,  so  as  to  facilitate  the  practice  of  composition.  The  purpose 
of  an  ordinary  dictionary  is  to  explain  the  meaning  of  words,  while  the  object  of  this  Thesaurus 
is  to  collate  all  the  words  by  which  any  given  idea  may  be  expressed.  —  Putnam's  Monthly. 

This  volume  offers  the  student  of  English  composition  the  results  of  great  labor  in  the  form 
of  a  ricli  and  copious  vocabulary.  We  would  commend  the  work  to  those  who  have  charge 
of  academies  and  high  schools,  and  to  all  students. —  Christian  Observer. 

This  is  a  novel  publication,  and  is  the  first  and  only  one  of  the  kind  ever  issued  in  which 
words  and  phrases  of  our  laiiguage  are  classified,  not  according  to  the  sound  of  their  orthog- 
raphy, but  strictly  according  to  their  signification.  It  will  become  an  invaluable  aid  in  the 
communication  of  our  thoughts,  whether  spoken  or  written,  and  hence,  as  a  means  of  improve- 
ment, we  can  recommend  it  as  a  work  of  rare  and  excellent  qualities.  —  Scientific  American. 

A  work  of  great  utility.  It  will  give  a  writer  the  word  he  wants,  when  that  word  is  on  the 
tip  of  his  tongue,  but  altogether  beyond  his  reach.  —  N.  Y.  Times. 

It  U  more  complete  than  the  English  work,  which  has  attained  a  just  celebrity.  It  is  intended 
to  supply,  with  respect  to  the  English  language,  a  desideratum  hitherto  unsupplied  in  any 
language,  namely,  a  collection  of  the  words  it  contains,  and  of  the  idiomatic  combinations 
peculiar  to  it,  arranged,  not  in  alphabetical  order,  as  they  are  in  a  dictionary,  but  according  to 
the  ideas  which  they  express.  The  purpo.se  of  a  dictionary  is  simply  to  explain  the  meaning 
of  words  —  the  word  being  given,  to  find  its  signification,  or  the  idea  it  is  intended  to  convey. 
The  object  aimed  at  here  is  exactly  the  converse  of  this  :  the  idea  being  given,  to  find  the  word 
or  words  by  which  that  idea  may  be  mostly  fitly  and  aptly  expressed.  For  this  purpose,  the 
words  and  phrases  of  the  language  are  here  classed,  not  according  to  their  sound  or  their 
orthography,  but  strictly  according  to  their  signification.  —  A'ew  York  Evening  Mirror, 

An  invaluable  companion  to  persons  engaged  in  literary  labors.    To  persons  who  are  not 

familiar  with  foreign  tongues,  the  catalogue  of  foreign  words  and  phrases  most  current  in 

'  modern  literature,  which  the  American  editor  has  appended,  will  be  very  useful. — Presbyterian. 

It  casts  the  whole  English  language  into  groups  of  words  and  terms,  arranged  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  student  of  English  composition,  when  embarrassed  by  the  poverty  of  his 
vocabulary,  may  supply  himself  immediately,  on  consulting  it,  with  the  precise  term  for 
which  he  has  occasion.  —  Ifew  York  Evening  Post. 

This  is  a  work  not  merely  of  extraordinary,  but  of  peculiar  value.  We  would  gladly  praise 
it,  if  any  thing  could  add  to  the  consideration  held  out  by  the  title  page.  No  one  who  speaks 
or  writes  for  the  public  need  be  urged  to  study  Roget's  Thesaurus.  —  Star  of  the  West. 

Every  writer  and  speaker  ought  to  possess  himself  at  once  of  this  manual.  It  is  far  from 
heingamere  dull, dead  string  of  synonymes,  but  it  is  enlivened  and  vivified  by  the  classifying 
and  crystallizing  power  of  genuine  philosophy.  We  have  put  it  on  our  table  as  a  permanent 
fixture,  as  near  our  left  hand  as  the  Bible  is  to  our  right.  —  Ctmgregationalist. 

This  book  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  we  ever  examined.  It  .supplies  a  want  long  acknowl- 
edged by  the  best  writers,  and  supplies  it  completely.  —  Portland  Advertiser. 

One  of  the  most  efficient  aids  to  composition  that  research,  industry,  and  scholarship  have 
ever  produced.  Its  object  is  to  supply  the  writer  or  speaker  with  the  most  felicitous  terms 
for  expressing  an  idea  that  may  be  vaguely  floating  on  his  mind ;  and,  indeed,  through  the 
peculiar  manner  of  arrangement,  ideas  themselves  may  be  expanded  or  modified  Uy  reference 
to  Mr.  Roget's  elucidattOBS.  —  Mimn,  N.  T.  (e> 


WORKS    JUST    ISSUED. 

VISITS  TO  EUROPEAN  CELEBRITIES.    By  William  B.  Sprague,  D  D 

12mo.     C>jth.     $1.00.     Second  Edition. 

The  first  edition  of  this  work  was  exliausted  within  a  short  tin\e  after  its  publica- 
tion. It  consists  of  a  series  of  I'ereonal  Sketches,  drawn  from  life^  of  many  of  the 
most  distiuf^uished  men  and  women  of  Europe,  with  whom  the  author  became 
ac^iuainted  in  the  course  of  several  European  tours:  Edward  Irving,  Rowland  Hill, 
Wilberforce,  Jay,  Robert  Hall,  John  Foster,  Hannah  More,  Guizot,  Louis  I'hilippe, 
Si-suiondi, Tlioluck,  Ciesenius, Neander,  Humboldt,  Encke, Rogers,  Camjibell,  Joanna 
Baillie,  John  I'ye  Smitu,  Amelia  Opie,  Dr.  I'usey,  Mrs.  Sherwood,  Maria  Edgewoith, 
John  Gait,  Dr  VVardlaw,  Dr.  Chalmers,  Sir  David  Brewster,  Lord  Jeffrey,  Trofessor 
Wilson,  (Kit  North,)  Southey,  and  others,  are  here  portrayed  as  the  author  saw  them 
in  their  own  homes,  and  under  the  most  advantageous  circum.stancea.  Accompany- 
ing the  Sketches  are  Uie  Autographs  of  each  of  the  personages  described  Ihis 
unique  feature  of  the  work  adds  in  no  small  degree  to  its  attractions.  For  the  social 
circle,  for  the  traveller  by  railroad  and  steamboat,  for  all  who  desire  to  be  refr"shed 
Itnd  not  woared  by  reading,  the  book  will  prove  to  be  a  most  agreeable  companion. 
The  public  press  of  all  shades  of  opinion,  Korth  and  South,  have  given  it  a  most  flat- 
tering reception. 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN.  A  Complete  Narrative  of  the  War  in 
Southern  Russia.  Written  in  a  Tent  in  the  Crimea.  By  Jlajor  E.  Bkuce 
Hajiley,  Author  of  "Lady  Lee's  Widowhood."  12mo.  Thick.  Printed 
Paper  Covers.    37i  Cents. 

Contents. — The  Rendezvous — The  Movement  to  the  Crimea  —  First  Operations  in 
tlie  Crimea —  Rattle  of  the  Alma  —  The  Battle-field  —  The  Katcba  and  the  Balbek  — 
The  Flank  March  —  Occupation  of  Balaklava  —  The  Tofition  before  Sebastopol  — 
Ccmmencemeut  of  the  Siege  —  Attack  on  Balaklava  —  First  Action  of  Inkermann  — 
Battle  of  Inkermann — Winter  on  the  I'laius  —  Circum.«pective  —  The  Hospitals  on 
the  Uosphorus — Exculpatory  —  Progress  of  the  Siege — The  Burial  Truce —  View  of 
the  Works 

This  was  first  published  in  Elackwood''s  Magazine,  in  which  form  it  has  attracted 
general  attention.  It  is  the  only  connected  and  continuous  narrative  of  the  War  in 
Europe  that  has  yet  appeared.  The  author  is  aji  officer  of  rank  in  the  British  army, 
and  has  borne  an  active  part  in  the  campaign ;  he  has  also  won  a  brilliant  reputation 
as  the  author  of  the  fascinating  story  of  "  Lady  Lee's  Widowhood."  By  his  profes- 
Bion  of  arms,  by  his  actual  participation  in  the  conflict,  and  by  his  literary  abilities, 
he  is  qualified  in  a  rare  degree,  for  the  task  he  has  undertaken.  The  expectations 
thus  raised  will  not  be  disappointed.  To  those  who  have  been  dependent  on  the 
Drief,  fragmentary,  interrupted,  and  irresponsible  newspaper  notices  of  the  war,  this 
book  will  furnish  a  full,  complete,  graphic,  and  perfectly  reliable  account  from  the 
beginning.  Should  the  author's  life  be  spared,  his  history  of  future  operations  will 
follow,  and  will  be  issued  by  the  publishers  uniform  with  the  present  volume. 

BOGET'S  THESAURUS  OF  ENGLISH  WOP.DS.  A  New  and  Improved 
E-iition.     12mo.     Cloth.     $1.50. 

This  edition  is  based  on  the  last  London  edition  (just  issued.)  The  first 
Ameiicau  edition  having  been  prepared  by  Dr.  Sears,  for  strictly  educational  pur 
poses,  those  words  and  phrases,  properly  termed  "  vulgar,"  incorporated  into  th« 
original  work,  were  omitted.  Regret  having  been  expre.s.sed  by  critics  and  scholars, 
whose  opinions  are  entitled  to  respect,  at  this  omission,  in  tlie  present  new 
edition  the  expurgated  portions  have  been  restored,  but  by  such  an  arrangement  of 
matter  as  not  to  interfere  with  the  educational  purpose  of  the  American  editor 
Besides  this,  there  will  be  important  additions  of  words  and  phrases  n:t  in  the  Er.^ 
lish  edition,  making  this,  therefore,  in  all  respects,  more  full  and  perfect  than  th« 
author's  edition.  <>^) 


THE  PLURALITY   OF   WORLDS. 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  by  Edward  Hitchcock,  LL.D.,  President  of 
Amherst  College.     12mo,  cloth.     $1.00. 

jK5~  This  is  a  masterly  production  on  a  subject  of  gieat  Interest 

The  "  Plurality  of  Worlds"  is  a  work  of  great  ability,  and  one  that  cannot  fell  to  arrest  th« 
attention  of  the  world  of  science.  Its  author  takes  the  bold  ground  of  contesting  the  generally- 
adopted  belief  of  the  existence  of  other  peopled  worlds  beside  our  own  earth.  A  gentleman 
upon  whose  Judgment  we  place  much  reliance  writes,  In  regard  to  it  ■ 

"  '  The  Plurality  of  Worlds '  iilays  Vie  mischief  with  the  grand  speculation  of  Christian  and 
othnr  astronomers.  It  is  the  most  remorseless  executioner  of  beautiful  theories  1  have  ever 
stumbled  'ipon,  and  leaves  the  grand  universe  of  existence  barren  as  a  vast  Sahara.  The  author 
is  a  stern  logician,  and  some  of  the  processes  of  argumentation  are  singularly  fine.  JIany  of 
the  thoughts  are  original  and  very  striking,  and  the  whole  conception  of  the  volume  is  as  novel 
as  the  results  are  unwelcome.  I  should  think  the  work  must  attract  attention  from  scientilic 
men,  from  the  very  bold  and  well-sustained  attempt  to  set  aside  entirely  the  scientilic  assump- 
tions of  the  age."  —  Huston  Atlas. 

This  work  has  created  a  profound  sensation  In  England.  It  Is.  In  truth,  a  remarkable  book,  — 
remarkable  both  for  the  boldness  of  the  theory  advanced,  and  for  the  logical  manner  in  which 
the  subject-iuatter  Is  treated.  —  Mercantile  JoumuX. 

The  new  scientlflc  book.  Plurality  of  Worlds,  recently  published  in  this  city.  Is  awakening  an 
unusual  degree  of  interest  In  the  literary  and  scientilic  world,  not  only  in  t^-ls  country,  but  in 
England.  The  London  Literary  Gazette,  for  April,  contains  an  able  revlejv,  occupying  over 
nine  columns,  from  which  we  make  the  following  extract ;  "  We  venture  lo  say  that  no  scien- 
tlUc  man  of  any  reputation  will  maintain  the  theory,  without  mixing  up  theWogical  with  phys- 
ical arguments.  And  it  Is  in  regard  to  the  theological  and  moral  aspect  of  the  question,  that 
we  think  the  author  urges  considerations  which  most  believers  in  the  truths  of  Christianity 
will  deem  imanswerable."  —  Evening  Transcript. 

The  "  Plurality  of  Worlds  "  has  created  as  great  a  sensation  in  the  reading  world,  as  did  the 
Vestiges  of  Creation.  But  this  time  the  religious  world  is  not  ur  in  arms  with  anathemas  on 
Its  lips.  This  is  a  book  for  it  to  "  lick  its  ear  "  over.  It  is  aimec.  at  the  speculations  of  Fonte- 
nelle,  or  Dr.  Chalmers,  respecting  the  existence  of  life  and  spirit  in  the  worlds  that  roll  around 
us,  and  demonstrating  the  impossibility  of  such  a  thing.  —  London  Cor.  of  iV.  T.  Tribune. 

To  the  theologian,  philosopher,  and  man  of  science,  this  is  a  most  intensely  interesting  worlt, 
while  to  the  ordinary  thinker  it  will  be  found  possessed  of  much  valuable  information.  The 
wori  Is  evidently  the  production  of  a  scholar,  and  of  one  earnest  for  the  dissemination  of  truth 
In  regard  to  what  he  considers,  for  theologians  and  scientilic  men,  the  greatest  question  of  tho 
ass.  —  AlJany  Transcript. 

The  work  Is  learned,  eloquent,  suggestive  of  profound  reflection,  solacing  to  human  pride,  and 
even  to  Christian  humility  ,  and  points  out  the  great  lesson  it  illustrates,  upon  the  dlarram  of 
the  heavens,  in  language  and  tone  elevated  to  the  standard  of  the  great  theme.  —  Boston  Atlas. 

One  of  the  most  extraordinary  books  of  the  age.  It  is  an  attempt  to  show  that  the  facts  of 
science  do  not  warrant  the  conclusion  to  which  most  scientific  minds  so  readily  assent,  that 
the  planets  are  inhuJ)ited.  The  anonymous  author  is  a  genius,  and  will  set  hundreds  of  critics 
on  the  hunt  to  ferret  him  out !  —  Star  of  tite  West. 

GEOLOGICAL  MAP  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  BRITISH  PROV- 
INCES OF  NORTH  AMERICA.  With  an  Explanatory  Text,  Geological 
Sections,  and  Plates  of  the  Fossil.s  which  characterize  the  Formations.  By 
JuLiis  Mahcou.     Two  volumes.     Octavo,  cloth.     $3.00. 

JB^  The  Map  is  elegantly  colored,  and  done  up  with  linen  cloth  back,  and  folded  In  octavo 
fori&,  with  thick  cluth  covers. 

The  most  complete  Geological  Map  of  the  United  States  which  has  yet  appeared.  The  exe. 
cution  of  this  J\I;ip  Li  very  neat  and  tasteful,  and  it  is  Issued  in  the  best  style.  It  is  a  work 
which  all  who  take  an  interest  In  the  geology  of  tho  United  States  would  wish  to  possess,  and 
we  recomnienil  it  as  extremely  valuable,  not  only  In  a  geological  point  of  view,  but  as  repre- 
senting very  fully  the  coal  and  copper  regions  of  the  country.  The  explanatory  text  presents  a 
rapid  sketch  of  tne  geological  constilations  of  North  America,  and  is  rich  In  facts  on  the  sub- 
Jets.  It  13  embellislied  with  a  number  of  beautiful  plates  of  the  fossils  which  characterize  the 
formations,  thus  making,  with  the  Map,  a  very  complete,  dear,  and  distinct  outline  qf  the  geologv 
tif  our  eouTUry,  — Mining  Magaxine,  jr.  T.  ••'\ 


AMOS    LAWRENCE. 


DIARY  AND  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  THE  LATE  AMOS  LAW^ 
RENCE  ;  with  a  brief  account  of  some  Incidents  in  his  Life.  Edited  by  his  son, 
William  R.  Lawrenck,  M.  D.  Witli  line  steel  Portraits  of  Amos  and  Abbott 
Lawuence,  an  Engraving  of  their  liirth-place,  a  Fac-simile  page  of  Mr.  Law- 
rence's  Hand-writing,  and  a  copious  Index.  Octavo  edition,  cloth,  $1.50.  Royal 
duodecimo  edition,  $1.00. 

This  work  was  first  published  in  an  elegant  octavo  volume,  and  sold  at  the  unusu- 
ally low  price  of  Ipl.oO.  At  the  solicitation  of  numerous  benevolent  individuals  who 
were  de.sirous  of  circulating  the  work — so  lemarkably  adapted  to  do  good,  especially 
to  young  men — gratuitously^  and  of  giving  those  of  moderate  means,  of  every  class,  an 
opportunity  of  possessing  it,  tlie  royal  duodecimo,  or  •'  cheap  edition,^''  was  issued, 
varying  from  the  other  edition,  only  "in  a  reduction  in  the  size  (allowing  less  margin), 
and  the  «/i(ctnf4s  of  the  paper. 

Within  si.x  months  alter  the  first  publication  of  this  work,  ttventy-two  thousand 
copies  liad  been  sold.  This  extraordinary  sale  is  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  character 
of  the  man  and  the  merits  of  the  book.  It  is  the  memoir  of  a  Boston  merchant,  who 
bec:ime  distinguished  lor  his  great  wealth,  but  more  distinguished  for  the  manner  in 
which  he  used  it.  It  is  the  memoir  of  a  man,  who,  commencing  business  with  only 
S20,  gave  away  in  public  and  private  charities,  during  his  lijetime  more,  probably 
than  any  other  jxirson  in  America.  It  is  substantially  an  autobiography,  containing 
a  full  account  of  3Ir.  Lawi-ence's  career  as  a  merchant,  of  his  various  multiplied  chan- 
ties, and  of  his  domestic  lite. 

"  We  have  by  us  another  wcrk,  the  '  Life  of  Amos  Lawrence.'  We  heard  it  once  said  in  the  pulpit, 
'  There  is  no  work  of  art  like  a  noble  life,'  and  for  that  reason  he  who  has  achieved  one,  takes  rank 
with  the  great  artists  and  becomes  the  world's  property.    We  aue  prol'd  of  this  book.    We  ark 

■WII.LINO    TO    LET    IT    00    FOHTH    TO    OTUEK    LAiNDS    AS    A    SPECIMEN   OF  WHAT  AMERICA  CAJT 

PKOofCE.  In  the  old  world,  reviewers  have  called  Barnuni  the  characteristic  American  man.  We 
are  willing  enough  to  admit-  that  he  is  a  characteristic  American  man  ;  he  is  one  fruit  of  our  soil, 
but  Amos  Lawrence  is  .inother.  Let  our  country  have  credit  for  him  also.  The  good  effect 
WHICH  THIS  Life  may  have  in  detekminino  the  course  of  youno  men  xo  iionob  and 
virtue  ij  incalculable."— ilKS.  Stowe,  in  N.  Y.  Independent. 

"We  are  glad  to  know  that  our  large  business  houses  arc  purchasing  copies  of  this  work  for  eaclj 
of  their  numerous  clerks.  Its  influence  on  young  men  cannot  be  otherwise  than  highly  salutaiy. 
Aa  a  business  man,  Mr.  Lawrence  was  a  pattern  for  the  young  clerk."— Boston  Traveller. 

"  Wc  are  thankful  for  the  volume  before  us.  It  carries  us  back  to  the  farm-house  of  Mr.  La\r-. 
rence's  birth,  and  the  village  store  of  his  first  apprenticeship.  It  exhibits  a  charity  noble  and  active, 
while  the  young  merchant  was  still  poor.  And  above  all,  it  reveals  to  us  a  beautiful  cluster  of  sistei 
graces,  a  keen  sense  of  honor,  integrity  which  never  knew  the  shadow  of  suspicion,  candor  in  the 
estimate  of  character,  filial  piety,  rigid  fidelity  in  every  domestic  relation,  and  all  these  connected 
witli  and  flowing  from  steadfast  religious  principle,  profound  sentiments  of  devotion,  and  a  vivid 
realization  of  spiritual  truth." — North  American  Review. 

*'  We  are  glad  that  American  Biography  has  been  enriched  by  such  a  contribution  to  its  treasures. 
In  all  that  composes  the  career  of  'the  good  man,'  and  the  practical  Christian,  we  have  read  few 
memoirs  more  full  of  instruction,  or  richer  in  lessons  of  wisdom  and  virtue.  We  cordially  unite  in 
the  opinion  that  the  publication  of  this  memoir  was  a  duty  owed  to  society."— National  Intbl- 

LIOENCER. 

"  With  the  intention  of  placing  it  within  the  reach  of  a  large  number,  the  mere  cost  price  is 
charged,  and  a  more  beautifully  printed  volume,  or  one  calculated  to  do  more  good,  has  not  been 
issued  from  the  press  of  late  years." — Evenino  Gazette. 

"  This  book,  besides  being  of  a  different  class  from  most  biographies,  has  another  peculiar  charm. 
It  shows  the  inside  life  of  the  man.  You  have,  as  it  were,  a  peep  behind  the  curtain,  and  see  Mr. 
Lawrence  as  he  went  in  and  out  among  business  men,  as  he  appeared  on  'change,  as  he  received 
his  friends,  as  he  poured  out,  'with  liberal  hand  and  generous  heart,'  his  wealth  for  the  benefit 
of  others,  as  he  received  the  greetings  and  salutations  of  children,  and  as  he  appeared  in  the  bosom 
of  his  family  at  his  own  hearth  stone."— BRUNbWicK  Telegraph. 

"It  is  printed  on  new  type,  the  best  paper,  and  is  illustrated  by  four  beautiful  plates.  How  it  can 
be  sold  for  the  price  named  is  a  marvel."— Norfolk  Co.  Journal. 

"It  was  first  privitely  printed,  and  a  limited  number  of  copies  wore  distributed  among  the 
relatives  and  near  friends  of  the  deceased.  This  volume  was  read  witli  the  deepest  interest  by  those 
wlio  were  60  favored  as  to  obtain  a  copy,  and  it  passed  from  friend  to  friend  as  rapidly  as  it  could  be 
read.  Dr.  Liiwrcnce  has  yielded  to  the  general  wish,  .and  made  public  the  volume.  It  will  now  be 
widely  circulated,  will  certainly  prove  a  stauduid  work,  and  be  read  over  and  over  Rgain."i-Bos- 
tos  Daily  Asvsrtiser. 

tP} 


VALUABLE   AYORKS. 

KNOWLEDGE  IS  POWER :  A  View  of  the  Productive  Forces  op 
Modern  Society,  and  the  Result  of  Labor,  Capital,  aud  Skill.  By  Charles 
Knight.  American  edition,  with  Additions,  by  David  A.  "Wells,  Editor  of 
"  Annual  of  Scientific  Discovery,"  &c.  With  numerous  Illustrations.  12mo, 
cloth.     SI. 25. 

This  work  is  eminently  entitled  to  be  ranked  in  that  class,  styled,"  books  for  the  people."  Tlie 
nuthor  is  one  of  the  most  popular  writers  of  the  day.  "  Knowledge  is  Power  "  treats  of  those  things 
which  "  come  home  to  the  business  and  bosoms  "  of  every  man.  It  is  remarkable  for  its  fullness  and 
variety  of  information,  and  for  the  felicity  and  force  with  which  the  author  applies  his  facts  to  his 
reasoning.  The  facts  and  illustrations  are  drawn  from  almost  every  branch  of  skilful  industry. 
It  is  a  work  which  the  mechanic  aud  artizau  of  every  description  will  he  sure  to  read  with  a  relish. 

This  is  a  work  of  rare  merit,  and  touches  many  strings  of  importance  with  which  society  is  linked 
together.  No  work  we  have  ever  seen  is  better  calculated  to  inspire  and  awaken  inventive  genius 
in  man  than  this.  Almost  every  department  of  human  labor  is  represented,  and  it  contains  a  large 
fund  of  useful  information,  condensed  in  a  volume,  every  chapter  of  which  is  worth  the  cost  of  tho 
book.  It  would  be  an  act  of  manifest  injustice  to  the  community  for  any  editor  to  feel  an  indifier- 
ence  about  commending  this  volume  to  a  reading  public N.  Y.  Cu.  IIebald. 

The  style  is  admirable,  and  the  book  itself  is  as  full  of  information  as  an  egg  is  of  meat.  — Journal. 

As  teachers  we  know  no  better  remuneration,  than  for  them  First  to  buy  this  book  and  diligently 
read  it  themselves;  Second,  to  teach  to  their  pupils  the  principles  of  industrial  organization  which 
it  contains,  and  of  the  facts  by  which  it  is  illustrated.  It  is  one  of  the  merits  of  this  book  that  it* 
facts  will  interest  youthful  minds  and  be  retained  to  blossom  hereafter  into  theories  of  which  they 
are  now  incapable.  Third,  endeavor  to  have  a  copy  procured  for  the  district  library,  that  the  parent! 
may  read  it,  and  the  teachers  reap  fruit  in  the  present  generation.  —  N.  Y.  Teacher. 

Contains  a  great  amount  of  information,  accompanied  with  numerous  illustrations.'rendering  it « 
compendious  history  of  the  subjects  upon  which  it  treats.  —  N.  Y.  Courier  and  Inquirer. 

We  commend  the  work  as  one  of  real  value  and  profitable  reading.  —  Rochester  Americaw. 

This  work  is  a  rich  repository  of  valuable  information  on  various  subjects,  having  a  bearing  on  th« 
industrial  and  social  interests  of  a  community.  —  Turitan  Recosdeb. 

MY  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLIMASTEPS  ;  or,  The  Story  of  irr 
Education.  By  Hugh  Milli:r.  author  of  "Old  Red  Sandstone,"  "Footprinta 
of  the  Creator,"  "My  First  Impressions  of  England,"  etc.     12mo,  cloth.    ^1.25. 

"  This  autobiography  is  quite  worthy  of  the  renowned  author.  His  first  attempts  at  literature, 
and  his  career  until  he  stood  forth  au  acknowledged  power  among  the  philosophers  and  ecclesias- 
tical leaders  of  his  native  land,  are  given  without  egotism,  with  a  power  and  vivacity  wliich  aro 
equally  truthful  and  delightsome."  —  PRESBVTEiiiAN. 

"  Hugh  Miller  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  the  age.  Having  risen  from  the  humble  walks 
of  life,  aud  from  the  employment  of  a  stone-cutter,  to  the  highest  rank  among  scientific  men,  every- 
thing relating  to  his  history  possesses  an  interest  which  belongs  to  that  of  few  living  men.  There  is 
much  even  in  his  school-boy  days  which  points  to  tlie  man  as  he  now  is.  The  book  has  all  the  eas« 
and  graphic  power  which  is  characteristic  of  his  writings."— New  York  Observer. 

"  This  volume  is  a  book  fo.'  the  ten  thousand.  It  is  embellished  with  an  admirat)le  likeness  of 
Hugh  Miller,  the  stone  mason  —  his  coat  off  and  his  sleeves  rolled  up  —  with  the  implements  of  labor 
In  hand  —  his  form  erect,  and  his  eye  bright  and  piercing.  The  biography  of  such  a  man  will  interest 
every  reader.  It  is  a  living  thing  — teaching  a  lesson  of  self-culture  of  immense  value."  — Phila- 
delphia Christian  Odserveb. 

"  It  is  a  portion  of  autobiography  exquisitely  told.  He  is  a  living  proof  that  a  single  man  may 
contain  within  himself  something  more  than  all  the  books  in  the  world,  some  unuttcrcd  word,  if  he 
will  look  within  and  read.  Tliis  is  one  of  the  best  books  we  have  had  of  late,  and  must  have  a 
hearty  welcome  and  alarge  circulation  in  America."  — London  Corresp.  N.  Y.  Tribune. 

"  It  is  a  work  of  rare  interest ;  at  times  having  the  fiicinntion  of  a  romance,  and  again  suggesting 
the  profoundcst  views  of  education  and  of  science.  The  ex-mason  holds  a  graphic  pen  ;  a  quid 
humor  runs  through  his  pages  ;  he  tells  a  story  well,  and  some  of  his  pictures  of  home  life  might 
almost  be  classed  with  Wilson's."  — New  York  Independent. 

"  This  autobiography  is  the  book  for  poor  boys,  and  others  who  are  struggling  with  poverty  and 
limited  advantages  ;  and  perhaps  it  is  not  too  much  to  predict  that  in  a  few  years  it  will  become  one 
of  the  poor  man's  classics,  filling  a  space  on  his  scanty  shelf  next  to  the  Autobiography  of  l"rank» 
lin."  — New  England  Fabmer. 

"  Lovers  of  the  romantic  should  not  neglect  the  book,  as  it  contains  a  narrative  of  tender  passion 
and  happily  reciprocated  affection,  wliich  will  bo  read  with  subdued  emotion  and  unfailing  interest." 
•-Boston  Tsavelles.  m) 


MODERN    ATHEISM. 

MODERN  ATnEISM,  und^r  its  Forms  of  Pantheism,  Materialism,  Secu- 
larism, Development,  and  Kataral  Laws.  By  James  Buchanak,  D.D  ,LL.D. 
12mo,  cloth,  $1.25. 

The  Author  of  this  work  is  the  successor  of  Dr.  Chalitiers  in  the  Chair  of  Divinity  in  the  Neir 
College,  Edinburgh,  and  the  intellectual  leader  of  the  Scottish  Free  Church. 

Pkom  IIlgh  Mi-llee,  Author  of  "  Old  Red  Sandstose,"  &c.,  &c.  —  The  work  before  us  Is 
one  of  at  once  the  most  readable  and  solid  which  we  have  ever  perused. 

From  the  "News  of  the  Churches."  —  It  is  a  work  of  which  nothing  less  can  be  said,  than 
that,  both  in  spirit  and  substance,  style  and  argument,  it  fixes  irreversibly  the  name  of  the  author 
us  a  leading  classic  in  the  Christian  literature  of  Britain. 

From  IIoward  Malcom,  D.  D.,  Peesidest  of  Lewisburo  University.  — No  work  has 
come  into  my  hands,  for  a  long  time,  so  helpful  to  me  as  a  teacher  of  metaphysics  and  morals. 
I  know  of  nothing  which  will  answer  for  a  substitute.  The  public  specially  needs  such  a  book  at 
this  time,  when  the  covert  atheism  of  Fichte,  Wolfe,  Hegel,  Kant,  Sehelling,  D'llolbach,  Comte, 
Crousse,  Atkinson,  Martineau,  Leroux,  Mackay,  Holyoake,  and  others,  is  being  spread  abroad  with 
all  earnestness,  supported,  at  least  in  some  places,  both  by  church  influence  and  university  honors. 
I  cannot  but  hope  that  a  work  so  timely,  scholarly,  and  complete,  will  do  much  good. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  solid  and  remarkable  books  in  its  department  of  literature;  one  of  the  most 
scholarly  and  profound  productions  of  modern  Christian  literature.  — Worcesteb  Transcript. 

Dr.  Buchanan  has  earned  a  high  and  well-deserved  reputation  as  a  classical  writer  and  close  logi- 
cal reasoner.  lie  deals  heavy,  deadly  blows  on  atheism  in  all  its  various  forms  ;  and  wherever  the 
work  is  read  it  cannot  fail  to  do  good.  —  Christian  Secretary. 

It  is  a  work  which  places  lis  author  at  once  in  the  highest  rank  of  modem  religious  authors.  His 
analyses  of  the  doctrines  held  by  the  various  schools  of  modern  atheism  are  admirable,  and  his 
criticism  original  and  profound  ;  while  his  arguments  in  defence  of  the  Christian  faith  are  powerful 
and  convincing.  It  is  an  attractive  as  well  as  a  solid  book  ;  and  he  who  peruses  a  few  of  its  pages  is, 
as  it  were,  irresistibly  drawn  on  to  a  thorough  reading  of  the  book. —  Boston  Portfolio. 

The  style  is  very  felicitous,  and  the  reasoning  clear  and  cogent.  The  opposing  theories  are  fairly 
stated  and  combated  with  remarkable  ease  and  skill.  Even  when  the  argument  fr lis  within  the 
range  of  science,  it  is  so  happily  stated  that  no  intelligent  reader  can  fail  to  understand  it.  Such  a 
profound,  dispassionate  work  is  particularly  called  for  at  the  present  time.  —  Boston  Journal. 

It  is  justly  described  as  "a  great  argument,"  "  magnificent  in  its  strength,  order,  and  beauty,"  in 
defence  of  truth,  and  against  the  variant  theories  of  atheism.  It  reviews  the  doctrines  of  the  dif- 
ferent schools  of  modern  Atheism,  gives  a  fair  statement  of  their  theories,  answers  and  refutes  them, 
never  evading,  but  meeting  and  crushing  their  arguments.  —  Phila.  Christian  Oesekvee. 

Dr.  Buchanan  is  candid  and  impartial,  too,  as  so  strong  a  man  can  atibrd  to  be,  evades  no  argument, 
undertakes  no  opposing  view,  but  meets  his  antagonists  with  the  quiet  and  unswerving  confidence 
of  a  locomotive  on  iron  tracks,  pretty  sure  to  crush  them. —  Christian  Register. 

We  hail  this  production  of  a  master  mind  as  a  lucid,  vigorous,  discriminating,  and  satisfactory 
refutation  of  the  various  false  philosophies  which  have  appeared  in  modern  times  to  allure  ingenu- 
ous youth  to  their  destruction.  Dr.  Buchanan  has  studied  them  thoroughly,  weighed  them  dispas- 
sionately, and  exposed  their  falsity  and  emptiness.  Ilis  refutation  is  a  clear  stream  of  l.ght  from 
beginning  toend.  — Phila.  Presbyterian. 

We  recommend  "  Modem  Atheism "  as  a  book  for  the  times,  and  as  having  special  Uaims  on 
theological  students.  —  Universalis!  Quarterly. 

It  is  remarkable  for  the  clearness  with  which  it  apprehends  and  the  fairness  with  which  it  states, 
not  less  than  for  the  ability  with  which  it  replies  to,  the  schemes  of  unbelief  in  its  various  modem 
forms.  It  will  be  found  easy  to  read— though  not  light  reading  — and  very  quickening  to  thought, 
while  it  clears  away,  one  by  one,  the  mists  which  the  Devil  has  conjured  around  the  great  doctrines 
of  our  Faith,  by  the  help  of  some  of  his  ingenious  modern  coadjutors,  and  leaves  the  truth  of  God 
standing  in  its  serene  and  pristine  majesty,  as  if  the  breath  of  hatred  never  had  been  breathed  forth 
against  it.  —  Conokegationalist. 

Dr.  Buchanan  lias  here  gone  into  the  enemy's  camp,  and  defeated  him  on  his  own  ground. 
The  work  is  a  masterly  defence  of  faith  against  dogmatic  unbelief  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  unN 
versal  skepticism  on  the  other,  which  neither  affirms  nor  denies,  on  the  ground  of  an  assumed 
deficiency  of  evidence  as  to  the  reality  of  God  and  religion.  —  N.  Y.  Christian  Chronicle. 

It  is  a  elear.y  and  vigorously  written  book.  It  is  particularly  valuable  for  its  clear  statement  and 
buuterly  refutation  of  the  Pantheism  of  Spinoza  and  his  School.  —  Cbbisiian  Hebald.  (t) 


IMPORTAIST    NEW    WORKS. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFS  :    Social  and  Individual.    By  Peter  Batne.  A.  M 

12uio.     Clotli.    $1.25. 

Conimls.  — I' ART  I.  Statement.  I.  The  Individual  Life.  II.  The  Social  Life. 
Part  II.  Exposition  and  Illustration.  Sook  I.  Cari$tianity  the  Basis  of 
Social  Life  1.  First  Principles.  II.  Howard;  and  the  rise  ol  I'hilanthropy.  III. 
Wilberlbrce;  and  the  development  of  riiilauthropy.  IV.  liudgett;  the  Christian 
Freeman.  V.  The  s'ocial  problem  of  the  age,  and  one  ortvvo  hiutstowardsitssolution. 
Book  II.  Ckrislianity  the  Basis  of  IivJividual  Character.  I.  Introductory:  a  few 
Word?  on  Modern  Doubt.  11.  John  Foster.  III.  Thomas  Arnold.  IV'.  Thomag 
Chalmers.  Tart  III.  Outlook.  I.  The  rositive  i'hilosophy.  II.  Tautheisti* 
Spiritualism.    111.  General  Conclusion. 

Particular  attention  is  invited  to  this  work.  In  Scotland,  its  publication,  during 
the  last  winter,  produced  a  great  sensation.  Hugh  Miller  made  it  the  subject  of  ae 
elaborate  review  in  his  paper,  the  Etlin burgh  Witness,  and  gave  his  readers  to  under- 
stand that  it  was  an  extraordinary  work.  The  "  A'euis  of  the  Churches,^''  the  monthly 
organ  of  the  Scottish  Free  Church,  was  equally  emphatic  in  its  praise,  pronouncinji 
it  "the  religious  book  of  the  season."  Strikingly  original  in  plan  and  brilliant  in 
execution,  it  far  surpasses  the  expectations  rai.eed  by  the  somewhat  familiar  title.  It 
is,  in  truth,  a  bold  onslaught  (and  the  first  of  the  kind)  upon  the  Pantheism  ofCarlyle, 
Fichte,  etc.,  by  an  ardent  admirer  ofCarlyle;  and  at  the  same  time  an  exhibition  of 
the  Christian  Life,  in  its  inner  principle,  and  as  illustrated  in  the  lives  of  Howard 
Wiiberloice,  lUidi^'etl,  i  o^ler,  CliaJmers.  eto.  The  brilliancy  and  vigor  ofthe author  a 
irtyle  are  remarkable 

PATRIARCHY;  or,  the  Family,  its  Constitution  and  Proba  By  Jons 

Harris,  D.  D.,  President  of  "  New  College,"  London,  and  author  of  "  'I'ho 
Great  Teaclier  "  "  Mammon,"  "  Pre-Adamite  Eartli,"  "  Man  Primeval,"  etc 
12mo.    Cloth.    $1.2.').     CC?"  A  new  work  of  great  interest. 
This  is  the  third  and  last  of  a  series,  by  the  same  author,  entitled  "  Contributions 
to  Theological  Science."    The  plan  of  this  series  is  highly  original,  and  has  been 
most  successfully  executed.    Of  the  two  first  in  the  series,  '•  Pre-Adamite  Earth"  and 
"  Man  Primeval,"  we  have  already  issued  four  and  live  editions,  and  the  demand 
still  continues.    The  immense  sale  of  all  Dr.  Harris's  works  attest  their  intrin.'iic 
•worth.    This  volume  contains  most  important  information  and  instruction  touching 
the  family  —  its  nature  and  order,  parental  instruction,  parental  authority  and  gov- 
ernment, parental  responsibility,  &c.    It  contains,  in  fact,  such  a  fund  of  valuable 
information  as  no  pastor,  or  head  of  a  family,  can  afford  to  dispense  with. 

GOD  REVEALED  IN  NATURE  AND  IN  CHRIST:  Including  a  Refutation 
of  the  Development  Theory  contained  in  the  "  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History 
of  Creation."  By  the  Author  of  "  The  Piiiu)SOPiiy  of  the  Plam  of  Sai^ 
vation."    12mo.    Cloth.     $1.00. 

The  author  of  that  remarkable  oook,  "  The  Philosophy  of  the  Plan  of  Salvation," 
ha  devoted  seven^  years  of  incessant  labor  to  the  preparation  of  this  work.  Without 
being  speciticall^fcntroversial,  its  aim  is  to  overthrow  several  of  the  popular  errors 
of  the  day,  by  esBR^shing  the  antagonist  truth  upon  an  imjiregnable  basis  of  reaso.i 
and  logic.  In  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  a  mere  subjective  revelation,  now  so 
plausibly  inculcated  by  certain  eminent  writers,  it  demonstrates  the  necessity  j<  au 
external,  objective  revelation.  Especially,  it  furnishes  a  new,  and  as  it  is  conceived, 
a  conclusive  argument  against  the  "  development  theory  "  so  ingeniously  maintained 
to  the  "  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of  Creation."  As  this  author  does  not  fub- 
lish  except  when  he  has  something  to  say,  there  is  good  reason  toanlicipate  that  the 
irork  will  lie  one  of  unusual  inteiest  and  value.  His  former  book  has  met  with  the 
most  signal  success  in  'loth  hemispheres,  having  pas.«ed  through  numerous  editions 
in  England  and  Scotlana,  and  been  translated  into  four  of  the  European  langnaget 
bf«ide8     It  IS  also  about  to  be  translated  into  the  Uiudoostanee  toujiue.  im) 


KITTO'S  CYOLOPiEDIA  OF  BIBUCAL"  UTBBATUflfc 

Pnrm  Rev.  K.  ^.  Kirk.  Paxtor  of  Mount  Vernon  Congregational  Church,  BegUm. 
The  work  is  iiivalrialile  to  llie  sliiileril  of  ilie  Bil.le.     We  have  no  dllier  in  tliis  depa 
It  !(•  ce  C(im|iare<l  wiili  it,  fur  comlensiiig  ilie  results  of  tiKxIerii  researclie-s  or  Oriental 
tiqulties  autl  tupugrapliy,  wliicli  are  so  vaiiialile  in  eAfilaining  Uie  language  uf  llie  Bible 

From  Hon.  Thomas  S.  fVUliams,  Hartford,  Ct 
A  mssx  of  information,  in  a  conitensed  fomi,  liiL'lily  iin|i<>rtant  to  those  who  retrard  the 
noisd  vuiiiuie ;  aiid  lu  eiabbatli-scliiHil  teaclieffs  it  will  prove  a  nio^t  valuable  aiisistaiit. 

From  [Ion.  FAteard  Everett,  LL.  D.,  Boston. 
1  have  kept  it  on  itiy  table,  and  liave  frequently  referred  to  it ;  and  it  has  tieen  a  good  deal 
lead  by  dillerenl  nieniliors  of  my  family.  I  unite  wiili  them  in  the  opinion  that  it  is  a  val- 
uable wi  ik,  well  ailaplmi  for  llie  aliove-nained  pur|»>se.  It  appears  to  enilHuly,  in  a  po  i  - 
lar  lorn.^  .he  results  ul  much  research,  aiid  will  promote,  1  doubt  not,  tlie  intelligent  r^  - 
ing  of  Ui0  Scriptures. 

From  IJnn.  George  JV.  Briggs,  LL.  D.,  Pitttjield,  Mass. 
To  all  who  read  and  study  the  Kible  it  will  lie  found  to  lie  a  work  of  siirpftssins  intersst 
and  utility,  in  faniilies  and  in  the  hands  of  Sahbalh-scliixd  teacher!),  its  value  and  iiii|K>r- 
tance  ran  hardly  lie  over-estiinaled.  lis  explanations  of  the  habits,  cii.stoins,  and  relijiious 
rites  of  the  Hebrews  and  the  siirroiindiiig  nations,  are  clear  and  iiii|Kirlanl ;  ami  llie  ii^ht 
ivliirh  it  tliroivs  u|Hin  the  biocraphy,  ceosraphy,  and  history  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment dev'elo|is  in  those  inspired  volumes  new  l>eaulies,  and  inspires  a  hiuher  admiration 
fiir  thai  KiKik  of  b<Miks,  and  a  profoiinder  reverence  for  its  Divine  Autliur.  I  wii>h  there 
was  a  copy  of  it  in  every  family  in  the  land. 

From  Jared  Sparks,  LL.  D.,  President  of  Harvard  College. 
I  am  glad  to  po&sess  the  work  ;  and  1  enclose  tJiree  dollars,  which  1  understand  to  be  the 
price  uf  it. 

From  Hon.  Theodore  Frelinghutjsen,  LL.  D.,  M'eie  Brunswick,  JV.  J. 
T  rpirard  it  as  a  very  valuable  help  to  the  student  of  il;'>  HIble.  It  brinss  to  the  aid  of  the 
leailiii!!  ronimuiiity,  in  an  instructive  ami  condensed  form,  a  rich  treasure  of  historical  and 
biblical  llleraliire,  prepared  and  arranaed  by  some  of  the  liest  niiiuls,  and  which  could 
otherwise  lie  uaineil  only  iiy  a  laborious  and  paiieni  research,  that  very  few  have  the  lei- 
sure to  give  to  the  siibjeii.  No  family  would,  1  tJiink,  ever  regret  the  purchase  of  a  book  so 
deserving  uf  a  liuiisehold  place. 

From  Hon.  John  McLean,  LL.  D.,  of  Ohio. 
It  is  only  necessary  to  liHik  through  this  volnnie  to  appreciate  its  value.  TTiere  is  no  work 
f  have  seen  which  contains  so  much  biblical  knowledge,  alphalietically  arranged  under  ap^ 
propriaie  heads,  in  so  condensed  a  form,  and  which  is  sold  so  cliea|i.  L'lnler  a  leading 
Word  is  to  lie  found  in  this  b(H>k,  whether  it  relate  to  natural  .science  or  scriptural  illiis- 
traiion,  enough  to  satisfy  every  inipiirer.  Next  to  Ihe  Hible,  Ihis  dictionary  of  it  cjuitaiiis 
more  inleresthig  knowledge  than  any  work  of  the  same  sixe,  ami  it  should  be  found  in  every 
umily,  iu  uur  public  scliuuU  as  well  as  in  all  our  academies  and  colleges. 

From  Hon.  Simon  Grcenleaf,  LL.  D. 

A  book  that  will  prove  hiL'hIy  useful  to  all  jiersons  engaged  in  the  Miidy  of  the  Bible, 
or  ill  teaching  its  sacred  truths  to  tiie  young.  I  hope,  therefore,  tiiat  it  will  oe  widelj 
circulated. 

From  Hon.  Robert  C.  ff'inthrop,  LL.  D.,  Boston, 

I  have  examined  with  great  pleasure  your  edition  of  Kitto's  Popular  Cyclopjedia  of  Bibli- 
cal I.il;;rature.  It  seems  to  me  a  most  convenient  and  valuable  aid  to  the  study  of  the 
i^iripti.res,  and  I  am  glad  that  you  have  lieen  able  to  publish  it  at  so  rea.sonalile  a  price 
[I  can  hardly  fail  to  commend  itself  to.  those  who  would  teach,  and  to  those  who  woulrt 
leant,  something  more  than  the  mere  letter  of  the  inspired  volume. 

Vrom  Henry  J.  Rip  ty,  D.'D.,  .Author  of"  Atilrs  on  the  Scriptures,'^  and  Professot  in  AVirtoa 
T  eological  fnstitution. 
It  would  he  invaluable  to  Sabbaih-schiHil  teachers,  and  of  great  utility  to  preachers  It 
e7er>  where  shows  evidence  of  research,  and  is  particular  and  accurate  in  its  details  It 
etnfiloys  api  ropriale  authorities,  both  le.ss  and  mire  modern,  a.s  to  nuesii.ms  of  sacred 
criticism,  ol  history  and  ueography,  an<l  gives  llie  reailcr  tlie  results  of  recent  lennie<i  in- 
Vesti^aliuiiii     II  tiie  purpose  of  tlii«  book  is  gained,  scriptural  knoietedgt  wUl  be  increjuad 

Ccc) 


THE  CRUISE  OF  THE  NORTH  STAR: 

A  NARRATIVE  OF  THE  EXCURSION  MADE  BY  MR.  VANDERBILT'S 
PAKTY,  IN  THE  STEAM  YACHT,  in  her  Voyage  to  England,  Russia, 
Denmark,  France,  Spain,  Italy,  Malta,  Turkey,  Madeira,  etc.  By  Rev.  Jonn' 
OvEHTOs  Choules,  D.  D.  With  elegant  Illustrations,  and  fine  Likenesses 
of  Commodore  Vanderbilt  and  Capt.  Eldridge.  12mo,  cloth,  gilt  backs  and 
sides.     $1.50. 

The  cmlse  of  the  Xoiih  Star  was  an  event  of  almost  national  concern,  and  was  watched  with 
universal  interest.  This  volume  Is  as  different  from  ordinary  books  of  travel  as  the  cruise  of 
the  Xorth  Stai  was  different  from  an  ordinary  trip  to  Europe.  We  need  not  Ixispeak  for  it 
many  readers.  —  Providence  Journal. 

The  American- people  ought  to  he  proud  of,  and  grateful  to,  Cornelius  Vanderbilt.  This  man 
has  done  more  than  a  dozen  presidents  to  give  America  a  respected  name  in  Europe.  At  first 
a  poor  boy,  he  has  shown  by  his  history  what  faculties  American  institutions  have  to  bring  out 
individual  enterprise.  Having,  by  his  masterly  enterprise,  acquired  a  princely  fortune,  Mr. 
Vanderbilt,  the  past  year,  in  a  yacht  of  his  own,  built  expressly  for  the  piurpcse.  took  a  family 
trip  to  the  several  Eui^pean  cities  :  Such  an  idea  never  before  occurred  to  mortal  man.  Every- 
where he  went,  his  yacht  enterprise  was  the  theme  of  general  comment.  Everywhere  the 
enterprise  bears  a  national  character.  In  the  person  of  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  American  enter- 
prise told  the  people  of  Europe  what  it  could  do.  The  desire  to  get  this  curious  narrative  was 
so  great  that  the  whole  of  the  first  edition  went  off  in  two  days  !  —  Star  of  the  West. 

Those  who  remember  to  have  met  with  a  very  interesting  work,  published  some  two  years 
ago,  entitled  "  Voung  Americans  Abroad,"  will  be  glad  to  learn  that  here  is  another  book  of 
travels  from  the  same  source.  Do  you  say  your  shelves  are  all  full  of  books  of  travel  ?—  we  reply, 
with  Leigh  Hunt,  —  then  put  in  another  shelf,  and  place  this  one  on  it  —  Metlwdist  Protestant. 

Tlie  work  Is  one  of  the  most  entertaining,  and,  in  its  way,  vivid,  portraitures  of  scenes  hi  ^e 
Old  World,  that  we  have  ever  seen.  —  Boston  Transcript. 

This  is  a  fitting  memorial  of  the  most  remarkable  trip  of  its  kind  ever  taken,  and  which  ex- 
cited great  interest  both  in  this  country  and  Europe.  The  book  is  in  many  respects  as  novel 
as  the  occasion  which  produced  it  was  unique  and  memorable.  Both  the  accomplished  author 
and  the  publishers  deserve  the  best  thanks  for  so  tasteful  a  record  of  a  performance  which  has 
reflected  so  much  credit  abroad  uiwn  American  enterprise.  —  New  York  Courier  &  Enquirer. 

This  work  is  interesting,  not  only  as  a  memorial  of  the  North  Star,  and  her  trip  to  Europe,  — 
an  enterprise  which,  of  a  private  nature  in  its  undertaking,  was  almost  national  in  its  anticipa- 
tions and  in  its  proud  results,  —  but  also  as  a  record  of  European  travel,  narrated  in  a  lively 
manner,  by  a  gentleman  whose  taste  and  attaiimients  eminently  qualify  him  for  the  task.  — 
New  York  Times. 

Never  before  did  a  private  Individual  make  so  magnificent  an  excursion  as  Mr.  Vanderbilt. 
In  a  steam  yacht  of  unsurpassed  splendor,  accompanied  by  a  few  select  friends,  whom  he  en- 
tertained, during  the  voyage,  in  the  most  luxurious  manner,  he  crossed  over  to  the  Old  World  . 
viewed  the  curiosities  of  parts  of  three  continents  ;  steamed  from  port  to  port,  and  then  re 
turned,  having  spent  four  months  in  this  most  delightful  manner.  Dr.  Choules,  who  was  on* 
of  his  guests,  has  given  to  the  world  a  charming  accovmt  of  this  unique  voyage,  in  a  beautiful! 
printed  and  illustrated  volume.  We  commend  it  to  our  readers  as  a  very  entertaining,  wel 
written  book.  —  Zion's  Herald. 

The  whole  world  has  heard  of  Mr.  Vanderbilt  and  his  matchless  yacht,  —his  pleasure  excu 
slon  to  Europe,  —  its  princely  cost,  and  safe  and  happy  execution.  *  *  *  The  book  will  bo 
eagerly  perused,  as  a  record  of  one  of  the  unique  occurrences  of  the  age  ;  is  written  with  a  kind 
of  drawing-room,  etiquette-like  style,  is  mellow  in  sentir-  -mt,  and  is  wholly  destitute  of  that 
Btrainiug  after  the  sublime,  and  stranding  in  the  "  high-£\' .  tin,"  that  characterize  the  effusions 
of  the  tourist  generally.  —  Chicago  Advertiser. 

This  exceedingly  clever  volume  is  the  result  and  the  record  of  one  of  the  most  stupendous 
and  magnificent  water  excursions  that  ever  was  made.  —  Norfolk  Co.  Democrat. 

This  beautiful  volume  describes,  in  a  chaste  and  readable  manner,  the  fortunes  of  the  widely- 
known  excursion  of  the  princely  New  York  merchant  and  his  family  and  guests.  From  the 
eclat  of  the  voyage  itself,  and  the  pleasant  way  of  Dr.  Choules"  account  of  It,  we  think  the  book 
Is  destined  to  have  —  what  it  deserves  —  a  very  large  sale.  —  Congrei/ationalist.  (f  ."* 


\    \ 


limilffilMiMS.^?'^'^'*'-  '■'BRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  676  175     3 


W«B?jr?!??!TTrT?)''' 


